Construction has started on Porch Close (The Ardens) in Northallerton for Broadacres Housing Association. Accommodation comprises 10 apartments for rent to people over the age of 55. The project is due to be completed in February 2011.

The site is located to the rear of Porch House, the oldest house in Northallerton, and falls within the conservaton area. The building is largely traditional in appearance with some modern features such as the double height curtain walling and a glazed canopy to the entrance.

The building will achieve Level 3 under the Code for Sustainable Homes, using solar panels for water heating and high standards of thermal insulation. Each apartment has also been designed to meet Lifetime Homes, with full disabled access and storage for mobility scooters within the hall.

One of me because Steve will be disappointed if I don’t include this photo!

More updates to follow as work progresses…

Hambleton Council have recently introduced a new requirement for a Sustainable Development Statement to be submitted with any planning application for 10 or more dwellings, or developments larger than 1,000 sqm.

A number of Planning Authorities now require these statements, so it is something worth checking before any new planning application.

Link to Hambleton’s Sustainable Development SPD

Here’s a link to EcoSalon’s list of 17 green roofs from around the world.

Interesting to flick through for 5 minutes and don’t worry, there’s some more modern stuff than the house shown above in there too.

Here’s a tip to help with selecting objects, I’ve found it’s very useful when using the stretch command.
Enter a command e.g. stretch, when the select objects prompt appears enter cp for crossing polygon. You can then draw a polygon around the nodes that need stretching and complete the command.

For more info and an explaination of the other selection options such as window polygon follow the link:
CAD Tutor Object Selection Tutorial
You will need to scroll down, as I’m sure everyone’s mastered window selection!