Potton - UK

Home Affordable Housing Product

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Kingspan has worked extensively in partnership with Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and developers to deliver high quality homes.

Kingspan Vantage is a collection of energy efficient and structurally pre-configured affordable housing platforms that have the Code for Sustainable Homes, Secured by Design and Lifetime Homes designed-in.

The Kingspan Vantage affordable housing platforms allow the development designer to maximise the potential from the plot. The designer has free-reign over the external façade. This allows the development designer the freedom to make best use of the land, provide value and create successful places with character, variety and identity.

Kingspan Vantage can deliver higher quality housing quicker without costing the earth.

A wide variety of platforms are available covering the full range of affordable housing requirements. All of the platforms are available at Code level’s three and four.

Cost
Kingspan Vantage is a collection of energy efficient and structurally pre-configured affordable housing platforms.

As a result of the pre-configuration, details such as the plot size, dwelling construction-cost and build times are known.

The cost of the Kingspan Vantage platforms has been refined over numerous projects. The known cost, along with the desired site dwelling density and rental income targets, allows quicker and more economic feasibility studies. It also offers increased certainty when negotiating land purchase.

The design work required for planning applications is significantly reduced as a result of the ‘known information’. This makes the process of submitting a planning application less costly and quicker. Should the planning application fail then the loss is reduced compared to a scenario where more work had been carried out. This reduced risk can open up ‘more difficult’ plots; plots that, as a result of their difficult nature, potentially offer financial savings.

The use of the Kingspan Vantage system also results in the point of cost certainty being much earlier in the timeline of the project.

Kingspan Vantage has been developed using tried and tested MMC techniques. These techniques can significantly reduce the time on-site. Less time spent on-site reduces the amount spent on preliminary costs.

With quicker development turnaround i.e. feasibility studies to site handover, rental income will start to flow from the properties more quickly.

Speed

As indicated in the Cost section, Kingspan Vantage is a collection of energy efficient and structurally pre-configured affordable housing platforms.

As a result of the platforms being preconfigured, details such as the plot size, approximate build-cost and build times are known. This information facilitates, along with desired site dwelling density and rental income targets, quicker and more economic feasibility studies.

The design work required for planning applications is also reduced as a result of the ‘known information’. This makes the preparation of planning applications quicker and less costly.

Design time is significantly shortened as the following have already been carried out:

• Line & point loads;

• Structural calculations;

• SAP assessment;

• Ene1 of the CSH;

• General arrangement drawings; and

• Manufacturing drawings.

The elements that combine to build a Kingspan Vantage pre-configured affordable housing platform are very familiar to Kingspan Off-Site and are of a repeatable format. They have been designed with ease of manufacture as a consideration. This familiarity and attention to design delivers time-savings in the manufacturing process.

When the Kingspan Vantage system arrives on-site, as a result of it using a leading Modern Method of Construction (MMC), the time required to erect and make the building weather-tight is quicker than if traditional masonry construction was used.

The cumulative effect of these time-savings allows the tenant to move into their new home quicker.

Quality

Each pre-configured affordable housing platform in the Kingspan Vantage collection is available to meet levels three or four of the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes. Higher levels of the Code can also be achieved if required.

The Kingspan Vantage collection has superior levels of thermal performance. With superior levels of thermal performance comes the increased importance of unwanted air-leakage. It is of no benefit to have superior levels of insulation if the heat being retained is lost through unwanted air-leakage. The Kingspan Vantage collection has been designed to deliver outstanding levels of energy efficiency through a balance of superior insulation and improved air-tightness.

Thermal performance is not achieved by simply increasing levels of insulation. As mentioned reducing unwanted air-leakage is important, but often overlooked is the issue of thermal bridging. This is where the insulation layer is breached by a component with lower thermal performance e.g. a lintel over a window.

Kingspan Potton has a level of technical expertise in-house that is unrivalled in the industry. This knowledge has been applied to develop construction details for its systems that deliver very low levels of thermal bridging, resulting in low energy and comfortable homes.

Proven Performance

The Kingspan Vantage collection has at its heart the tried and tested Kingspan TEK^® Building System. This allows the structure to offer:

• U-values as low as 0.11 W/m^2.K;

• air-tightness as low as 1 m³/hr/m² at 50 pa;

• A+ Green Guide ratings; and

• thermal bridging y-values lower than those given in the ACDs and ECDs.

Important design considerations such as Lifetime Homes and Secured by Design have also been incorporated into the Kingspan Vantage affordable housing platforms.

The elements that combine to build a Kingspan Vantage pre-configured affordable housing platform are very familiar to Kingspan Potton and are of a repeatable format.

The elements and platforms have been designed with ease of manufacture as a consideration. This familiarity and attention to design delivers higher quality control standards in the manufacturing process.

The Kingspan TEK^® Building System is manufactured under an ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 Quality and Environmental management system. Kingspan Potton also holds the UKTFA’s Q-mark plus.

The high level build quality delivered from the factory helps to reduce on-site defects. Reduced defects also speed up the time spent on-site rectifying works.

The designs used in the Kingspan Vantage collection regularly translate into positive Housing Quality Indicators (HQIs). HQIs are used to demonstrate levels of performance achieved under the Homes and Communities Agency’s Design and Quality Standards (these standards were inherited from the Housing Corporation).

Use of the Kingspan Vantage system allows the scheme designer to focus on the external façades of the homes and the development layout. This freedom allows the designer to meet the requirements of the Design & Quality Standards:

External Environment - Core Performance Standard: Design and quality standards, April 2007

The development of new homes should be undertaken in a manner which delivers great places to live, creates well-mixed and integrated communities and provides an appropriate balance between private and public open space.

Is the design specific to the scheme? Building for Life, 2008 Edition

New housing should promote or reinforce local distinctiveness without stifling innovation. The best schemes are usually those that recognise the individuality of a place, and either tailor standard solutions or create particular and original architecture for that site.

Does the scheme feel like a place with distinctive character? Building for Life, 2008 Edition

Successful places tend to be those that have their own distinct identity. How a neighbourhood looks affects how residents feel about where they live. Character and quality help increase community pride. The ability of a scheme to create a sense of place greatly depends on the quality of the buildings and the spaces around them. This not only needs architecture of a high standard but a strong landscape strategy. It is about character, identity and variety.

Kingspan Vantage pre-configured affordable housing platforms can be finished to present an almost endless variety of street scenes including rural, urban, suburban and waterside.