King's Head Yard

Two studio houses for Bishop's Castle Community Land Trust.

The houses belong to the community and are for rental to local people, and cannot be sold.

The site is in the centre of Bishop's Castle.

The building fills the site up to the boundaries to the North, South and West, with the East elevation only available for daylight.

The solution both spatially and in terms of daylight and fire escape is to use a first floor balcony open to the living area.

The houses are built to Code 3, "Lifetime Homes" and "Secured by Design" standards. They are insulated to Code 4 level.

The plan has the kitchen and bathroom on the ground floor with the living area to the East, and the sleeping gallery on the first floor balcony.

17 Local firms and individuals were involved in the project.

Energy data:

The walls are insulated with 20mm of warmcell blown insulation and the roof with 300mm. The windows are triple glazed.

The overall U value is calculated to be 0.85W/m2K.

The air tightness permeability tests gave a result of 1.22 m3/(h.m2)@50Pa in plot 1 and 1.02 m3/(h.m2)@50Pa in plot 2.

There is a heat recovery system, saving 1567 kWh/ year.

The heating requirement is estimated at 1096.55 kWh/year, with water heating at 1512.90 kWh/year.

The SAP rating is 82 giving a SAP band B. 1001.80 in plot 2.