Oak Priory, Stoke-on-Trent

Oak Priory situated in Abbey Hulton, Stoke-on-Trent is the second of the three schemes delivered as part of the Stoke-on-Trent Extra Care PFI project. 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.

The design is built up from two connected buildings and provides 175 two and one bed apartments within a large residential neighbourhood. It provides landscape gardens with communal spaces surrounding a three-storey atrium and offers a range of on-site amenities including a health and wellbeing suite, village hall with cinema screens and PA system, craft room and a hairdressing salon that is open to the public.

This project was shortlisted for:

• Residential – RICS Awards, West Midlands 2018
• Completed Award – Housing Design Awards 2018

This building also had to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’, together with a contractual requirement to reduce the carbon emissions of the building (when tested against the target building) by a minimum of 25%.  This building achieved an overall carbon reduction of 29.38% which will save 32,648.8 kg/CO2 per annum. To achieve such a highly efficient building we added PV panels to the roof, which produces 11.96 kWh/m2 per annum for the communal areas and approximately 3.96 kWh/m2 per annum for each apartment.

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 for all three properties. As well as utilising renewable technologies we also ensured that the mechanical and electrical services that were provided were high efficient units.