Dunholm Road Affordable Housing

The brief for this development was to provide a mix of housing types for Abertay Housing Association Ltd on a recently cleared brownfield site adjacent to Dunholm Road, Charleston: a socially deprived area of Dundee. Construction commenced in December 2006 and will finish in summer 2008. Abertay Housing Association are keen to provide housing which is socially inclusive, health promoting and energy efficient. Our aim is to provide such housing whilst at the same time respecting the form of housing in the immediate context and fulfilling Dundee City Council's current housing density requirements.

The mix of proposed housing includes 14 general needs semi detached villas, two wheelchair accessible cottages and five cottages with integral support for specific clients with severe learning disabilities.

The houses will be insulated to levels that far exceed the current minimum building standards and the intention is to include a low energy positive ventilation system with integral solar panels, which pre-heats or pre-cools incoming air. This will help reduce the heating demand, which will be met with off-peak electricity. Our calculations predict the cost of heating and lighting a house to be on average £255 per annum.