Successful handover of £17m low-carbon Gorton Mill House

Construction work has been completed on Gorton Mill House, the new £17 million extra-care scheme in Gorton, East Manchester, developed by Southway Housing Trust.

Designed by Pozzoni Architects and constructed by Rowlinson Construction, the development includes 106 one and two-bed apartments, a bistro, garden lounge, activity room, bathing suite, and hair & nail salon providing supported accommodation for over 55s and new community facilities for the surrounding area.

Southway Housing Trust was keen to reduce the development’s carbon footprint whilst considering the resident demographic, ensuring that the system was both easy to use and familiar to the residents.

The design features numerous sustainable solutions such as solar panels situated on the roof that feed into the power supply, ground source heat pumps for heating and hot water and vehicle charging points. The innovative low carbon heating and hot water design utilises ground source heat exchange via a network of 120-metre-deep external boreholes linked to heat pump units serving each apartment. The design meets Southway Housing Trust’s aim to heat all new build properties utilising renewable heating hot water systems whilst benefiting residents with lower energy bills.

Gorton Mill House was shortlisted by the UK’s leading Housing news publication, Inside Housing, for their best older people’s housing development (urban) award 2021. The award celebrates the very best residential developments across the UK that serve the needs of their communities and strive towards sustainable solutions.