Bellway’s ‘Future Home’ wins sustainable construction accolade at Building Innovation Awards

Bellway has won a coveted national sustainability award for its work on a world-first research project aimed at creating the energy efficient homes of the future.

The housebuilder won the category for the Most Sustainable Construction Project in the 2023 Building Innovation Awards for its Future Home @ Energy House 2.0.

Paul Lawler and Jamie Bursnell of the Bellway management team collected the award during a ceremony, hosted by Build in Digital, at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester on Thursday 12 October.

As part of the pioneering project, Bellway has built a three-bedroom detached house, named The Future Home, inside a climate-controlled chamber within the Energy House 2.0 facility at The University of Salford. The chamber allows researchers to test the energy performances of the building in temperatures ranging from -20C to +40C, as well as in extreme conditions such as gale force winds, rain, snow, ice and solar radiation.

Awards judges praised the Bellway submission as “ground-breaking research” and “an excellent all-round entry”. One judge said: “It’s great to see Bellway considering affordability in their solutions.” The conclusion of the judging panel described the housebuilder’s work at Energy House 2.0 as “an exceptional research project that can have a sustainable impact on the wider construction industry”.

Jamie Bursnell, Bellway Group Technical and Innovation Manager, said: “We are exceptionally proud of our team’s work at Energy House 2.0. It means a lot to us to have our research within the project recognised not only for the impact it will have on housebuilders and the industry in general, but also on the daily lives of consumers.

“Exploring and promoting sustainability across the business is the purpose of our Better with Bellway strategy, which includes the work we have undertaken at the Energy House 2.0 facility at The University of Salford. This project is a key component of our commitment to carbon reduction – one of the core priorities of our sustainability strategy.

“The Future Home is part of a truly pioneering research project which will allow us to test and evaluate, in tightly controlled conditions, new ways of powering, heating and insulating homes. This will help to make them more energy efficient and enable them to meet new standards which require a significant reduction in carbon emissions for new-build homes from 2025.

“We must say a special thank you to The University of Salford, our partners including Barratt Developments and St Gobain, and our suppliers for their commitment and support for the Future Home @ Energy House 2.0 project.”

Energy House 2.0 is a £16 million project part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The UK’s largest housebuilder, Barratt Developments, also built a three-bedroom low carbon home, known as eHome2, in the same climate-controlled chamber, in partnership with Saint-Gobain, the worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction.

For more information about the Future Home @ Energy House 2.0 project, visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/the-future-home.