Willow Barns, Blurton

Willow Barns, which was completed in 2017, is one of three retirement villages for the over-55s within the £55m Stoke Extra Care PFI project, which is the largest scheme of its kind to be developed in Stoke-on-Trent. The contract to build, finance and operate the villages over a 25 year period in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent Council was awarded to the Sapphire Consortium, which included the Eric Wright Group.  We provided Building & Energy Modelling, plus full M&E design for all three projects, which in total provided 390 extra care units.

It provides 75 apartments comprising 48 two bedroom flats and 27 one bedroom flats. All the flat layouts are designed to Lifetime Home Standards and can be considered to be ‘wheelchair lite’. In doing so, they offer direct access from the main bedroom to the bathroom with the potential for a hoist to be fitted at a later date.  All elements of the building have been designed to accord with the requirements and recommendations of Secured by Design.

The project received the following awards:

• LABC Building Excellence Awards
• Winner – Best Social or Affordable New Housing Development
• Finalist – Best High Volume New Housing Development
• Finalist – Best Public Service Building
• Housing Design Awards 2017
• Winner – HAPPI Awards (Housing our Ageing Population Positive Ideas)
• Winner – RIBA West Midlands Award 2018 – The Sapphire Consortium (Eric Wright Group, Your Housing Group and Kajima Partnerships)

The communal areas of this project i.e. the corridors, hair salon, village hall and restaurant, had a percentage reduction of 48.26% which will save 32,311.90 kg/CO2 per annum on all three projects. The domestic areas will save 12,550.32 kg/CO2 per annum, giving a combined total of 44,862.22 kg/CO2 per annum on all three projects. To achieve such a highly efficient building we added PV panels to the roof, which produces 11.38kWh/m2 per annum for the communal areas and approximately 4.3kWh/m2 per annum for each apartment on all three projects.

CHP units were also utilised in this project, producing 3.48 kWh/m2 per annum for the communal areas and approximately 2.8 kWh/m2 per annum for each apartment on all three projects. As well as utilising renewable technologies we also ensured that the mechanical and electrical services that were provided were high efficient units.