Work will shortly begin to deliver hundreds of affordable homes, retail spaces and community facilities across Blackbird Leys, now formal planning permission has been granted by Oxford City Council. The council’s planning committee approved plans to carry out the transformational redevelopment in August, following more than four years of engagement
Scott Brownrigg’s design for a new life sciences campus on a 15 acre site on the outer edge of Cambridge have received planning approval. Designed for BioMed Realty, the new park provides over 500,000 sq ft flexible laboratory and office space, aimed at life sciences, biotechnology and traditional office occupiers.
New building regulations with requirements for effective digital information management for compliance, will be a driver for tech buying decisions this year. 2024 is the year when the Building Safety Act (BSA) will come into full force, following the first provisions rolled out in 2022 and 2023. The BSA mandates
In the heart of the Scottish Highlands lies Dalnavie Woodland, a thriving carbon offset project spanning 41 hectares, equivalent to 77 football pitches. With a commitment to combatting climate change and transforming land use, Dalnavie Woodland, supported by CPI Euromix, Potanow Forestry and CarbonStore, is making significant contributions to the
Casa by Moda, the single-family homes (SFH) division of developer and operator Moda Group, has completed the acquisition of 100 units which form part of a wider mixed-residential masterplan in Doncaster. To deliver what will be their third operational neighbourhood across the UK, Casa have acquired 100 high-quality family homes
WHERE: John Smith House, 145-165 West Regent Street, G2 4RZ. WHEN: Friday 19 January from 12.00 noon until 3 pm Unite the union will hold a meeting on Friday (19 January) at John Smith House for workers impacted by the Stewart Milne group being placed into administration. This week, Unite held meetings
Work will shortly begin to deliver hundreds of affordable homes, retail spaces and community facilities across Blackbird Leys, now formal planning permission has been granted by Oxford City Council. The council’s planning committee approved plans to carry out the transformational redevelopment in August, following more than four years of engagement with the Blackbird Leys community and more than 1,500 pieces of feedback from local residents and stakeholders. The plans by housing association Peabody (formerly Catalyst) and development partner Oxford City Council include 294 homes across two sites, which will help to tackle Oxford’s housing shortage. A new district centre will include 210 homes, 83 percent (174 homes) of which will be for social or affordable rent and 17 percent (36 homes) for shared ownership. A further 84 houses for shared ownership will be built at Knights Road. The district centre is also set to provide new high-quality facilities to support the Blackbird Leys community and others that live and work in the local area. This will include green spaces, shops and a community centre, as well as improved roads with a segregated cycle route. Beginning in April 2019, Peabody and Oxford City Council held more than 15 events for Blackbird Leys residents to feed into plans, engaging with the local community through door knocks, leaflet drops, webinars and in-person events. With planning permission secured and agreements now finalised, the project’s contractor Hill has begun preparation work on site, including putting up hoardings at the existing Community Centre and Evenlode Tower parking and garages. Demolition will begin shortly, with the old Community Centre expected to be taken down at the end of the month. Hill will be hosting a ‘Meet the Builder’ event on Wednesday 31 January for local residents to meet the construction team, learn more about the construction process and ask the project team questions. The drop-in session will take place in the hall of Church of The Holy Family in Cuddesdon Way from 3pm to 6pm. Peabody and the council have also been working with local communities since August to understand their views about the new Blackbird Leys Community Centre and the public space surrounding it, which will be delivered as part of the first phase of the redevelopment. Along with events, meetings and consultations, the Leys Community Review Panel – made up of local residents – has been set up to communicate the community’s needs to the design team. Planning consent for the Community Centre has been granted in ‘outline’, and there will be further opportunities for the community to influence plans until the submission of a detailed planning application in the spring. Peabody and Oxford City Council will soon set out further information about how local people can access opportunities to work on the Blackbird Leys redevelopment project, learn skills in construction, and get involved with artwork on construction hoarding. Simon Barry, Managing Director, Development at Peabody said: “We’ve come a long way since we first engaged with the community in 2019 about our proposals for Blackbird Leys, so I’m delighted to now see work beginning on site. This marks a critical step forward in our programme to rejuvenate this area with much-needed affordable homes and purpose-built high-quality public spaces. “The next stage is to finalise our plans for the Community Centre, and we’ve had brilliant conversations with local residents and organisations over the past few months – that’s thanks to the fantastic energy of this community. We’re looking forward to building on this as we move through the final design stage.” Councillor Linda Smith, cabinet member for housing, Oxford City Council, said: “The start of construction work on site is a major milestone in the long history of this project. Some people believed we’d never get to this stage, and the current difficulties in construction and property development mean it’s taken more time and lots of hard work to get here. “I’d like to thank local people for bearing with us over the years as the scheme was paused and re-started and the vision for a new district centre for Blackbird Leys was developed. We now have work commencing on a scheme which will deliver nearly 300 much-needed new affordable homes, modern shops and a brand-new community centre, which will be a big boost for residents of Blackbird Leys.” Homes England played an important role in the funding of the Blackbird Leys project, with their housing grant and infrastructure funding supporting the delivery of the much-needed homes. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Scott Brownrigg’s design for a new life sciences campus on a 15 acre site on the outer edge of Cambridge have received planning approval. Designed for BioMed Realty, the new park provides over 500,000 sq ft flexible laboratory and office space, aimed at life sciences, biotechnology and traditional office occupiers. Buildings on the new park will be energy efficient, and speculatively designed to suit the diverse range of end user needs within the Cambridge market with potential for multi or single occupation. Occupants will enjoy access to an onsite gym, café and array of outdoor amenity and open space. A series of fully accessible landscaped terraces, platforms and gardens include covered outdoor collaborative workspaces, providing tenants with ultimate flexibility in where they work while helping to bring the indoors out. Located next to Peterhouse Technology Park – home to the Scott Brownrigg designed headquarters for technology company Arm – the new park will be an exemplar science hub in Southern Cambridge; helping to meet local demand for quality life science space and reinforce the region’s status as a world-leading centre for research and development. Ed Hayden, Director and Head of Life Sciences, said: “Creating this new park is a really exciting opportunity to build upon the successful history of the technology in Cambridge, and we are really thrilled to be designing the next generation of state of the art workplaces to support the growth of world leading creativity in Cambridge.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
New building regulations with requirements for effective digital information management for compliance, will be a driver for tech buying decisions this year. 2024 is the year when the Building Safety Act (BSA) will come into full force, following the first provisions rolled out in 2022 and 2023. The BSA mandates digital building information and safety cases, as well as a golden thread of information, for higher-risk buildings (HRBs). Therefore, prioritising information will be high on the industry agenda in 2024, all delivered by technology to ensure effective information management. But the BSA is not the only regulation with a requirement for digital information competency for compliance. Photographic evidence is now mandatory to comply with Part L under Building Regulation 40. And more legislation and standards are set to follow with digital information requirements, such as the Future Homes and Building Standard, where information will be needed to support building design, construction, and management. With the evolution of the construction and property industry, there is no time like the present to get information, processes, and the technology in order to deliver better information and, therefore, building outcomes. This emphasis on digital data and information to better manage buildings throughout their lifecycle — from planning all the way through to operations and maintenance — is not necessarily new concept. However, it is only recently that the focus has shifted across the construction and building management sectors to prioritise its importance, driven by new and updated standards and legislation. That is why BuildData Group, with its brands Zutec, Createmaster and Createmaster Information Management, believe information will be king, and should be given the same attention as the physical asset. Emma Hooper, Head of the Research Institute at the BuildData Group, states: “As an industry we need to shift our thinking about information and data, as it lies at the core of regulation, digital transformation, and the way a built asset is designed, constructed, and operated. Essentially, we need information management to enable us to find, share, understand, use, and query what we do in an easy, digestible, and decisive way, while ensuring quality and trust. It is the linchpin of everything we do across the built environment, and without it we cannot operate effectively. In our minds, information and good information management should be as important as the built asset itself.” So why will information be king in 2024? Keeping people and our environment safe, keeping well-maintained buildings The construction, built environment and digital worlds are constantly evolving. Therefore, ensuring the right stakeholders have the right information at the right time to make decisions, control risk, keep buildings well maintained and people and our environment safe is critical. Information is only useful if it is available, accessible, easily discoverable, and understandable and a golden thread of information is now legal requirement of duty holders and accountable persons of occupied higher-risk buildings under the BSA. This is to ensure that everyone involved in building safety management and maintenance, whether directly or indirectly, has access to key details that can help identify, assess, and mitigate risks. When the right information is delivered at the right time — whether it’s to facilities management, the fire department, or tenants — more informed decisions can be made more quickly. With the right technology platform and stack in place building information can be surfaced, managed, and shared, and kept up to date to meet compliance. Being able to integrate with other systems means all building information can be managed in one place, supporting the journey to a golden thread of information, and making information king. Quality over quantity There is a plethora of information required to meet building regulation compliance. From fire and emergency files to structural information, health and safety files, as well as operations & maintenance manuals and completion certificates – all this information should have a purpose. Without purpose it is useless. This means information must be high quality to the degree that it performs that purpose, is usable and enables the outcomes it is intended for. There are several criteria used to measure information quality, including accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, and validity. All of this is important because it ensures that the information used to make key decisions is reliable. It is therefore critical to ensure information quality throughout the information management process, as without this it can lead to ineffective decision-making, construction and operational errors, and ultimately put lives and our built environment at risk. There is also a direct correlation between information quality and information compliance. Lost, inaccessible or inaccurate information can cause huge issues, and one of the reasons we have building standards and regulations in place. With a consistent structure, schemas, and workflows, as well as standardised forms, templates, and checklists, one platform for information management can ensure that data meets quality standards. And, when construction quality is a huge factor in delivering buildings that meet standards and compliance, then the information quality related to that building should be equally as good. Another reason to make information king. Right data in, is right information out Leading on from good quality information, is the right data going into the information management system or platform. The right information in, results in the right information coming out to drive the decision-making process, while controlling risks and reputation. Many systems today have AI or machine learning functionality to help surface the right information. However, the main obstacle for AI is poor quality data, which directly impacts the reliability of the AI model in place. When in investing in technology, it is also crucial that the data going into a platform is accurate, representative, and of high quality. When information comes from so many sources, the construction and property industry has always struggled to collect documents and data, structure this information and label it correctly, all while maintaining quality. Companies like Createmaster, can help collect, tag, and review the information for quality, and store in one platform (like Zutec), with dashboards to manage that information to ensure data governance and robust and accurate information,
In the heart of the Scottish Highlands lies Dalnavie Woodland, a thriving carbon offset project spanning 41 hectares, equivalent to 77 football pitches. With a commitment to combatting climate change and transforming land use, Dalnavie Woodland, supported by CPI Euromix, Potanow Forestry and CarbonStore, is making significant contributions to the environment and the local community. Dalnavie Woodland boasts the planting of approximately 100,000 trees, with 90% being productive conifers, including Norway and Sitka spruce, and Douglas fir. Additionally, four hectares of broadleaves are strategically planted around the perimeter to seamlessly integrate the woodland into the local scenery. This conversion from low-density grazing land represents a commendable collaboration between CPI Euromix and Potanow Forestry, aligning shared objectives of combating climate change and utilising land for both environmental and agricultural benefits. Over the next 45 years, Dalnavie Woodland is poised to achieve three significant objectives: CPI Euromix’s Investment and Partnership CPI’s commitment to carbon capture at Dalnavie has played a vital role in supporting the woodland’s objectives. This marks the second successful partnership between CPI and Potanow Forestry, following a collaboration at Corwar Woodland in Dumfries and Galloway. CPI’s investment in Dalnavie, coupled with previous support at Corwar, underscores their dedication to sustainable forestry practices and carbon offset initiatives. Tony O’Sullivan, CEO of CPI Euromix, said: “Dalnavie Woodland stands as a testament to the transformative power of sustainable forestry practices and collaborative efforts in combating climate change. Through CPI and Potanow Forestry’s dedication, this carbon offset project not only contributes to carbon capture but also improves economic growth, job creation, and the sustainable use of land.” Between Dalnavie and Corwar, CPI’s support has led to the planting of over 170,000 trees across 70 hectares, with a combined potential to capture almost 16,469 tonnes of carbon. This partnership exemplifies the positive outcomes achievable when companies prioritise environmental stewardship and work collaboratively to address climate change Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Casa by Moda, the single-family homes (SFH) division of developer and operator Moda Group, has completed the acquisition of 100 units which form part of a wider mixed-residential masterplan in Doncaster. To deliver what will be their third operational neighbourhood across the UK, Casa have acquired 100 high-quality family homes for rent from Albemarle Homes, with houses ranging in size from two to four-bedrooms. The neighbourhood, which will be called ‘Casa at Westmoor Grange’, is located on the outskirts of one of the most desirable suburbs in the city, Armthorpe, which provides excellent commuter links to the M18 and is just a 10-minute drive to central Doncaster. The neighbourhood is also close to local facilities including Armthorpe Leisure Centre, Doncaster Racecourse and Doncaster Golf Range. The acquisition follows in the wake of Casa’s first Yorkshire neighbourhood in Leeds – Casa, Abbey Court – and is a further step in Casa’s ambition to secure 5,000 new homes within the next three years. The first phase of Casa’s maiden neighbourhood in Glasgow, Casa, Vista Park, is already fully let. The 19-hectare Westmoor Grange neighbourhood marks the first time that Casa has formed part of a wider housing masterplan, with their rental homes expected to welcome its residents in Summer 2024. The entire masterplan comprises just over 400 homes, including affordable housing and OMS. Single family housing provides quality rental homes, purpose built to high environmental standards for a sustainable long-term rental model and managed by a professional landlord, as opposed to the traditional private landlord model. Casa residents at Westmoor Grange will receive a deposit-free, pet friendly living as part of Casa’s industry-leading inclusive offer which places service, technology, wellbeing and sustainability at the fore of its next generation communities. They will also benefit from the exclusive MyCasa app, which provides residents with 24/7 access to customer service and maintenance reporting, as well as inclusive resident events, services and offers. Following the deal, Casa will continue to work with AlbemarleHomes to complete the delivery of the new homes to the high standard expected by the Casa brand and its residents. This includes embedding Moda’s technology partner Utopi’s smart environmental sensors into the homes, which enable residents to monitor everything from room temperature to air quality and light pollution. Homes will also benefit from additional sustainable elements from solar PV panels to EV chargers, as Moda remain on their journey to Net Zero by 2030. The rise of the SFH sector will see residents in family rental homes gain access to the same high levels of service and quality associated with BTR city centre living. Matthew Townson, Director of Development and Projects at Casa by Moda, said: “With Casa at Westmoor Grange, we’re raising the bar when it comes to rental accommodation in Doncaster. The site’s acquisition also marks two significant milestones for us, as it’s our second development in our home region of Yorkshire and our first inclusion within a wider housing masterplan. “Looking ahead we have ambitious plans for the future and are looking forward to collaborating with leading housebuilders like Albemarle Homes, as well as local authorities and landowners to deliver more new homes across the UK, as we progress towards our target of securing 5,000 new homes in the next 3 years.” Casa by Moda are working with Albemarle Homes, a leading family run housing developer to deliver the homes. Darryl Barker, Managing Director at Albemarle Homes, said: “Our ethos, and the reason Albemarle Homes was established, is to provide quality built properties that become a home from the very start. Our Albemarle Standard is what sets us apart and we’re pleased that Casa by Moda has identified this and made the decision to incorporate a number of our Westmoor Grange homes into its unique private rented portfolio. “We feel it is important that consumers are given a range of options to meet their own individual circumstances and support this alternative choice. “Our ongoing commitment to quality construction aligns with Casa by Moda’s vision, in delivering outstanding homes that go beyond mere residences and, we are confident that our properties will contribute to the flourishing communities they strive to create.” Ahead of welcoming its first residents this summer, pre-registrations of interest for homes in Casa at Westmoor Grange can be made via the Casa website. For more information on acquisition or collaboration opportunities please contact Rob Gill: rob.gill@modaliving.com To find out more visit: www.casa.moda Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
WHERE: John Smith House, 145-165 West Regent Street, G2 4RZ. WHEN: Friday 19 January from 12.00 noon until 3 pm Unite the union will hold a meeting on Friday (19 January) at John Smith House for workers impacted by the Stewart Milne group being placed into administration. This week, Unite held meetings in Aberdeen and Dundee to offer legal and employment support for former Stewart Milne Group workers. Unite has stated that it is actively exploring legal action against the company due to its failure to consult the workforce or Unite in a redundancy situation as ‘no notice’ was given. Members of the Glasgow press are invited to come along at noon until 12.30 pm to conduct interviews with workers and Unite officers. The meeting thereafter will discuss prospective protective award claims and further support. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
