£1m timber frame deal heads first eco town
17 May 2014Stewart Milne Timber Systems has won the contract to supply timber systems to the UK’s first eco-town and is in final negotiations to produce the timber frame for the initial stage, a deal worth about £1m.
North West Bicester is the only development still to adhere to the Government's original Eco Town Policy Planning Statement and is designed to create a zero carbon town to Level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.
The initial phase is for 393 homes to be built with the company's Sigma II timber frame system. Group managing director Alex Goodfellow described it one of the most important housing developments in the UK today.
"NW Bicester is an inspiring project and we're very excited to see the end result of the Exemplar first phase. The timing of the project is extremely ambitious and being able to build the timber systems before they're brought to the site to be erected with mobile cranes allows a significant time advantage over standard construction methods," he said.
The Sigma II build system with 195 C-Stud provides a U-value of 0.15 and is produced at the company's site in Witney, Oxon. The party walls and roof will be site insulated and made air tight membranes. With pre-assembled roof modules and insulated floor cassette edges means a pair of semis can be weather and air tight within 72 hours, a spokesman said.
Work is due to start in the summer under lead developer A2 Dominion and main housing contractor Willmott Dixon.
Stewart Milne's 'fabric first' approach is described as a critical element for achieving high levels of environmental performance, the developers said.
"Low carbon homes and other buildings are going to take on growing importance in the future and timber's inherent energy efficiency and structural integrity can play a key role in helping achieve those objectives," said Mr Goodfellow.
