Building starts on the UK's first affordable green cohousing project
From: Fred H Olson (fholsoncohousing.org)
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 05:44:37 -0700 (PDT)
peterpiper [at] riseup.net is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager
<fholson [at] cohousing.org> due to a format problem (html only).

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02 April 2012

Building starts on the UK's first affordable green cohousing project
in Leeds Tweet about it: http://twitter.com/lilacleeds

At 2pm on Monday 2 nd April, a ground breaking ceremony will be held
at the former Wyther Park Primary School on Victoria Park Avenue in
Bramley, West Leeds to mark the beginning of works on the UK's
first affordable, green cohousing project in the UK, called Lilac.

Building work has started in Leeds on a unique affordable housing
development that will see the future residents help to build their new
homes built from strawbales and timber. LILAC is a cohousing project
which is self-funded by its members with assistance from the Homes and
Communities Agency (HCA) and The Department of Energy and Climate
Change (DECC). Leeds City Council has supported the project by
offering the LILAC group a deferred purchase option on the former
school site in the Bramley/Kirkstall area. Councillor Peter Gruen,
Leeds City Council executive board member for neighbourhoods and
housing said:

"It is fantastic to see this kind of project starting in Leeds. It is
something totally different for Leeds, and no doubt a project that
will inspire others across the city to be involved in similar ideas.
The project will provide additional affordable housing, which is
certainly much needed. But more than this, it will allow people to be
involved in building their own homes which will enable them to live
the lifestyle of their choosing, with minimal impact on the
environment."

The 20 new homes are owned and managed by a fully mutual co-operative
housing society. They are built around a community common house
designed with shared cooking, eating, laundry, leisure and meeting
facilities, many open to the surrounding community, that will allow
all members of the community to live together in a way that will
drastically reduce its their carbon footprint.

Tash Gordon, the treasurer of the project said: "It is amazing
to finally get on site and be building the UK's first genuinely
affordable and green cohousing project. It is not only amazing for us
the residents. This is a new model for affordable co-operative housing
and we want to work with other groups in Leeds and beyond who want to
do this for themselves."

The contractor, Lindum Construction, have started on the foundations
on site, but the walls are being assembled off site at a Flying
Factory with assistance of LILAC members. Using an approach pioneered
by the firm Modcell, the walls are made from strawbales, timber frames
and lime render to provide a super-insulated, energy-efficient and
renewable alternative to traditional building materials. The Modcell
system has been used for schools and public buildings in the UK but
this is the first residential project of its type. The homes are
planned to be occupied by the end of November 2012.

Simon Gregory, Managing Director of Lindum Construction, said
"We are delighted to be constructing this very exciting housing
project - the first time in the UK that a complete housing development
has been constructed using the Modcell prefabricated panels with
strawbales to provide insulation. We are committed to improving the
environment so a pioneering housing scheme like this, designed to
encourage living as lightly on earth as possible whilst
addressing the need for affordable housing, is a great project to be
part of and builds on our reputation for constructing sustainable
affordable housing."

Richard and Lucy Thompson, who recently joined the scheme with their 2
year old daughter Amber said: "we are very excited about moving
in to Lilac. With very low energy bills, a beautiful, safe car free
space for our little daughter to play with her friends, and lots of
lovely neighbours around this really is the dream place to bring up a
family. There are only 2 remaining houses and we expect a lot interest
now people can see these amazing affordable eco-homes going up."

Ends

For more information contact Paul Chatterton, Secretary of Lilac MHOS
Ltd on 0789 4340531 or tweet http://twitter.com/lilacleeds

Images of the design and construction method available on request.
Email p.chatterton [at] leeds.ac.uk

Notes to editors:

The ceremony will take place at 2pm on Monday 2 nd April 2012 at the
Lilac site which can be found between Victoria Park Avenue and
Kirkstall Mount, just of Broad Lane in Bramley, Leeds. For media
interested in attending please get there early from around 1.30pm. In
attendance will be members of the project, both adults and young
children, local residents, and representatives from professional and
statutory bodies who are involved in the project.

Case studies of 8 of the households are at
www.lilac.coop/about-lilac/about-our-members/ and most are available
for interview.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the single, national housing
and regeneration delivery agency for England. Our vision is to create
opportunity for people to live in homes they can afford in places they
want to live, by enabling local authorities and communities to deliver
the ambition they have for their own areas.

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LILAC , stands for Low Impact Living Affordable Community. It is a
fully mutual co-operative society registered in the UK. See
http://www.lilac.coop/ . There is one 3 bed and one 4 bed house
available at the scheme. Those interested should email
membership [at] lilac.coop . Stay up-to-date by following LILAC on Twitter

Lindum is a construction company owned by its employees and was
recently announced as the top construction company in the UK to work
for in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies list 2012. For more
information about Lindum visit www.lindumgroup.com.

Modcell is a company co-founded by pioneering eco-architect Craig
White from White Design Associates, who are also the project's
architects. See www.modcell.com .

Lilac is holding a Learning Day workshop to share its model on 10 th
May in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds.


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