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Gamlingay Eco Hub: Community's dream is realised

Submitted by Vera Hale

On  Friday, 23rd March, The Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP, Secretary of State for Health and South Cambridgeshire's MP, officially opened the newly refurbished Gamlingay Eco Hub. The new community centre is one of the early projects to receive support from The Glass-House, and throughout its development has been a true community led project. It is also a truly sustainable building designed by civic Architects Ltd – sustainable on an environmental, social and economical level. 

First and foremost is the social aspect. It was a project devised, led and managed by the community. As all of those involved acknowledge, the key figure was Bridget Smith. She rallied around to get the whole community on board to realise the £2m refurbishment of the original community centre. 

Together with their architects (civic Architects led by Dan Jones) they established the right brief to help regenerate the building and give it a new lease of life. The new functions added to the centre are the council offices, library and extra multi-purpose spaces to enhance the potential of the building and to increase the use and opening hours of the centre. These features have made the centre a real asset for the surrounding community, but also make it a viable investment, using it to its full potential. 

The building has a new welcoming entrance that leads onto a library area and to the council offices on the mezzanine floor. From there the spaces flow into one another. With daylight entering most of the building, it leads you effortlessly from room to room. But all spaces can be separated to suit the requirements of the events. The original main hall is retained as it was cheaper to refurbish it than to build a new. At the rear, there is new square space with a beautiful timber roof and overall the whole building has a nice contemporary finish with great detailing. 

Great energy saving technology is also employed in the building which will save the community money in future maintenance costs. It is kitted out with a ground source heat pump, which generates the heat for the underfloor heating in the new extensions. Photovoltaic panels on the roof generate the electrics to run the pump and other electrics in the building, with the surplus sold back to the grid. There is a rainwater harvesting tank installed that supplies the toilet cisterns and a solar thermal to supply the changing rooms with warm showers. The whole building is super insulated and creates a high level of comfort for the interior. During the build only two skips left the site according to architect Andrew Siddalll. Re-using as many of the materials as possible and with good detailing, waste was minimal.

It was a long journey to get the project realised. The initial contractor went bust and they had to be very resourceful to get all the funding together. But through sheer tenacity and community collaboration, they created a fantastic community centre which they can be proud of.

Watch a video of the opening of the Eco Hub here.

Vera Hale is a co-founder of the Cave co-operative and is undertaking a collaborative PhD at Sheffield University with The Glass-House and bureau - design + research, investigating the merits of Community Led Design. 

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Building Community at Eden's Core

Submitted by Louise Dredge

Earlier this month we joined our Building Community partners - Eden Project, Locality and communityplanning.net - at the awe-inspiring Eden Project in Cornwall for the Building Community Planning Camp, an event which aimed to help communities get their heads around neighbourhood planning.

Groups from all over the country came along to participate in three days of creativity, skills development and experience sharing.

The Glass-House ran a number of workshops and we were delighted to meet so many passionate, engaged and dynamic individuals working towards positive neighbourhood change!

Here's a sneak peek of what we got up to:

What a sight on arrival! The marvel of Eden..

Visual Minutes at work

Jargon busting session - with cake!

A site visit to a proposed Eco Town site near St. Austell in Cornwall

Dinnertime!

Developing a shared vision at The Glass-House 'Design by Consensus' workshop

Participants get some hot tips and tricks on architectural drawings from The Glass-House team

A quick look inside the Mediterranean biome before departure!

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Eco-Homes Study Tour, West Midlands

Submitted by Hannah Gibbs

Last week we organised an inspirational study tour of eco-housing developments in the West Midlands for 4 community groups passionate about developing their own projects. The groups had different priorities for the day but all also a shared interest in creating energy efficient housing and learning more about how to lead their project. We also invited along Rob Annable of Axis Design, Birmingham, to help answer questions about more technical aspects of the refurbishments and building for a sustainable future.

The big message from the day was the importance of creating places where people love living in order make them more vibrant and sustainable. The groups who came along were also struck by the importance of careful management and maintenance of eco-features, and the need to adopt a long-term approach.

We started the day at Summerfield Eco Village in Birmingham. Here, three streets of Victorian terraces have been given a new lease of life through environmental improvements. The project was carried out by Family Housing Association between 2006 and 2008 in collaboration with other local partners.

Summerfield Eco Village - Each house in the scheme has had eco features installed (including solar panels, photovoltaic tiles, insulation and waste water recycling) to suit the specific property and the patterns of the people living there.

One of the most interesting parts of the story for us is how the project began – in this instance a group of residents raised their concerns with the housing association. Summerfield residents had noticed an increasingly transient population in their area. The streets were run down and dangerous because short-term tenants lacked a sense of pride and community spirit.  The environmental improvements were made to try to tackle these problems and now, fuel bills in Summerfield have been reduced and residents can afford to remain living in the area so the turnover rate is much lower.

Now that residents feel more pride and ownership in the area and have been able to have an influence on the changes made, it's an attractive place to live.  Residents have also gained a much greater appreciation of environmental issues, which shows how crucial it is to empower and collaborate with local people on the design process.

Our second visit was to Cross Street South in Wolverhampton - a new build development created in 2008 by The Bromford Group. Here, we saw the extent to which attention to detail in design can create a highly attractive and low energy development.

Cross Street South - The added extras which make this scheme special include on site allotments, a wetland area which is supplied by surface water and a wood chip boiler providing cheap heating and hot water.

The fantastic thing about visiting Summerfield and Cross Street South was seeing the effects of successful environmental initiatives for local communities. The ideas behind these initiatives have now become part of mainstream thinking in the UK, even if there is still some way to go in their application.

We're on the look out for self-build housing projects next year... any ideas?

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