Cedar-clad House By Yale Students Could Serve As A Model For Affordable Housing

Graduate students at the Yale School of Architecture have designed and built a contemporary family home in a low-income neighbourhood in New Haven, Connecticut. The dwelling was completed as part of the school's Jim Vlock Building Project, a programme established in 1967.

 Jim Vlock Building Project by Yale School of Architecture
The programme is focused on designing and constructing low-cost homes in economically distressed neighbourhoods in New Haven, Connecticut – the city where Yale is based. First-year students are required to participate as part of the school's curriculum. "Unique among architecture schools, this programme is mandatory for all members of the class," said the school. "The house allows students the experience of working with a client and the opportunity to respond to the challenges of affordable housing and urban infill."

 Jim Vlock Building Project by Yale School of Architecture
This year, students were tasked with creating a 1,000-square-foot (93 square metres) dwelling on a corner lot in the city's West River district.  "Students were challenged to develop a cost-efficient and flexible design prototype that could be adapted to similar sites in New Haven and other urban environments across the country," said the school. Fifty-two students broke into eight teams and worked simultaneously on design schemes. A panel of faculty members and guest jurors selected the winning proposal.
           
           Jim Vlock Building Project by Yale School of Architecture
The students then constructed the home over the summer, with an official dedication taking place in early October. The two-storey house is clad in red cedar and is topped with a pitched roof made of galvanised aluminium. "The pitched roof was a contextually sensitive response to the traditional New England gable roof," said the school.
          
           Jim Vlock Building Project by Yale School of Architecture.
The upper portion of the home slightly cantilevers over the ground level, giving the building a distinctive appearance in a neighbourhood dotted with more traditional architecture. A low concrete wall borders the property. The home's design is centred on the idea of a multi-functional core. "The core is efficient, consolidating stairs and utilities to leave the remainder of space open, gracious, and able to connect to the site," said the school. The core is essentially a wooden box inserted into the centre of the home. It shields the kitchen and living room on the first floor from a highly exposed street corner.
          
          Jim Vlock Building Project by Yale School of Architecture
Stairs within the core lead to the upper storey, which contains a communal space with built-in cabinetry, along with bedrooms and bathrooms. "The density of the ground floor is flung to the perimeter of the house on the upper floor, creating a thickness to hold furniture and fixtures for bedrooms and bath," described the school. The team fitted the interior with concrete and bamboo flooring, white oak millwork and modern appliances. Several large windows, along with a skylight at the top of the core, enable natural light to fill the space.    
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           Jim Vlock Building Project by Yale School of Architecture
A number of companies donated labour and material for the project, including site excavation, plumbing and drywall. Throughout the project, the students collaborated with NeighborWorks New Horizons, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to developing quality affordable housing. The organisation put the house up for sale, and it was recently purchased by a family who has lived in the neighbourhood all of their life.
          
          Jim Vlock Building Project by Yale School of Architecture
The project was honoured with the 2015 Award of Merit for Student Design from the Connecticut Green Building Council. The Jim Vlock Building Project was started by Charles W Moore, the architecture school's dean from 1965 to 1971, in collaboration with faculty member Kent Bloomer. "Moore saw that getting out of the studio and building something would have several benefits for the students," said the school.
 "As a believer in simple tectonics and basic technologies, he hoped students would be inspired by the mechanics of building."
           
           Jim Vlock Building Project by Yale School of Architecture
"In the midst of the student unrest of the 1960s he saw the project as a way for students to commit to positive social action by building for the poor." Early projects were located outside of New Haven, ranging from community centres in the Appalachian region to camp structures in rural Connecticut.
          
          Jim Vlock Building Project by Yale School of Architecture
 In more recent years, the programme has teamed up with groups such as Habitat for Humanity and Common Ground to focus on affordable housing. Other recent design-build projects include a pair of micro-cabins on the Navajo Reservation in Utah by students from the University of Colorado.

Project credits:

Partner: NeighborWorks New Horizons
Project director: Adam Hopfner
Assistant project director: Kyle Bradley
Studio coordinator: Alan Organschi
Studio critics: Trattie Davies, Peter de Bretteville, Amy Lelyveld, Joeb Moore, Herbert Newman
Student project managers: Alex Kruhly and Tess McNamara

Ground Floor Plan


First Floor Plan



Source:- http://www.dezeen.com/2015/11/20/cedar-clad-house-jim-vlock-building-project-yale-school-of-architecture-students-affordable-housing-usa/

Adopting Passivhaus Building Standards...........

 ......could allow people to heat their homes using power emitted by their televisions.

An alternative insulation system lets you save cash from your couch




By adopting Passivhaus building standards, a well-insulated building could be heated by the energy emitted by a television, a fridge and two human bodies Getty

Feeling guilty about watching Made in Chelsea? Perhaps you’d feel better if you knew that 30 minutes or more of Spencer, Jamie and Binky could help heat a home. 

In a well-insulated building the energy emitted by a television, a fridge and two human bodies would be enough to heat it, said senior electrical engineer Bill Watts, who thinks we could all save money and energy by adopting Passivhaus building standards. 

Although central heating systems would be needed on the coldest days, they would be made “all but redundant” in homes built according to Passivhaus standard, said Mr Watts, a senior partner at engineering firm Max Fordham.  The standard, developed in Germany in the early 1990s, leads to homes that are so energy efficient they only need an extra 15kWh/m² per year of heating energy.   

So, just an hour in front of the box would be “enough to keep you warm when it’s down to three degrees outside. That will give you 21 degrees inside,” said Mr Watts. “It does depend on whether you’ve got very heavy concrete walls. But if it’s a modern construction, things will heat up very quickly.”

Mr Watts said those wishing to feel the full heating benefits of a television would need to thoroughly insulate their home through such methods as triple-glazing and wall insulation. “The average home in the UK uses 130kWh/m² per year to heat. Even in older homes, effective insulation can, in some cases, reduce this to as little as 15kWh/m² per year, meaning the modest amount of radiated heat from a television in a well-insulated home would keep most of us comfortably warm,” said Mr Watts.

A 'Passivhaus' dwelling is one that is air-tight and needs little or no heating because heat isn't lost in winter and in summer the house remains cool (Rex)

Although popular in Germany and Sweden, not enough homes in the UK are being built to the Passivhaus standard, he said. Instead money was being spent on more wasteful systems such as Combined Heat and Power schemes and District Heating, which are switched on all year round and can cost between £5,000 and £15,000 to install.

“The standards [of building new homes with appropriate insulation] have been sliding back, under pressure from developers [who] say ‘we can’t afford to put in all this insulation’. But people are spending money on these District Heating schemes which are very expensive,” said Mr Watts.

Insulating older buildings was also necessary to reduce energy consumption, but often proved expensive. “The retrofit of the existing housing stock is a real challenge. It’s certainly possible to get it up to that sort of [Passivhaus] standard but I didn’t say it was easy. You either put [insulation] on the outside of the house which will affect what the building looks like or you put it on the inside which affects how big the rooms are … [but] it can be done on a piecemeal basis,” said Mr Watts.

Improving the insulation standard of homes would have an “enormous” impact on the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions and energy usage. Nearly half of the energy consumed in the UK is for heating.

Mark Elton, a certified European Passivhaus designer, said home appliances contributed a higher proportion of heating needs in Passivhaus buildings than conventional homes, but did not advocate depending on them “as the primary form of heating as they rely on carbon-intensive electricity to operate”.  

“But as the future for energy efficient, highly comfortable homes ... the Passivhaus standard represents an exciting future,” he said, adding that a three-bedroom home of around 100m² could cost as little as £7 per month to heat. 

Investing in Passivhaus standard insulation of existing building stock as a national infrastructure priority, would also reduce the need for new power plants. “Maybe we wouldn’t need that next generation of expensive Chinese-funded, French-built power stations after all,” he said.

Source:- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/adopting-passivhaus-building-standards-could-allow-people-to-heat-their-homes-using-power-emitted-by-a6707656.html

Parents' Guide To Student Buy-to-let Properties

If your children are off to university, investing in a flat for them could be a bright move for all. We offer a parent’s guide to college buy-to-lets

First degree: buy-to-let properties, such as the Super B scheme in Brighton can provide a profitable home for students  

This may become the best investment you’ll ever make. And if your son or daughter is heading to university this year, it will also buy you priceless peace of mind.

Instead of wasting money on rent, canny parents are snapping up new-build buy-to-let properties near their child’s college. They earn through renting rooms to other students, and stand a high chance of securing capital appreciation when they eventually sell.

Student numbers are growing dramatically, too. According to the university admissions service Ucas, at least 413,000 school-leavers will start their first degrees this autumn.

Now the property investment firm London Central Portfolio says students have taken over from people working in finance as the biggest tenant market in the capital.

But the Money Charity is warning that today’s students suffer a cost-of-living crisis. It has surveyed accommodation near 150 universities – and found it to be of poor quality and expensive. So here are 10 tips to avoid that worry and invest in your child’s future in a booming market.

Buying an old house, maximising the number of bedrooms and squeezing in lots of students, Men Behaving Badly-style, is no longer good enough. Students now demand high-quality fittings, en suite bathrooms, Wi-Fi and even parking.

2 Buy near the college

Few colleges allow student parking, so accommodation on bus routes or within walking distance is perfect. New-builds are usually located away from densely packed terraced residential areas and closer to public transport routes.

3 Consider the long term

“A one-bed studio will be cheapest, but a two-bed flat means you can earn extra rent by letting to another person. It also increases your long-term rental or resale opportunities to include professional couples or young families,” says Location, Location, Location property guru Phil Spencer.

4 Avoid quirky properties

Some experts think that buying individual rooms or “pods” in a block may be too risky. “Student pods are not considered individual properties and therefore cannot be bought using a mortgage,” says Mish Liyanage of property investment specialists the Mistoria Group. He says buyers should stick to mainstream apartments.

5 Budget carefully

Find the right mortgage through a broker such as charcol.co.uk or comparison site such as moneyfacts.co.uk. Don’t forget that most lenders demand 40 per cent deposits before offering the interest-only mortgages that are best for buy-to-let investors. They also expect rental income to be 125 per cent of the mortgage.

6 Fixtures and fittings

New-build homes are likely to have high-quality landlord-friendly fixtures such as easy-to-replace kitchen worktops, cupboard doors and vinyl floors. If you buy off-plan with a choice of extras, ask for window locks, durable decking and a bike shed. And remember – students are hard on furniture, so budget to replace some items every two years.

7 Target your student renter

Your son and daughter may return to your family between terms, but let that second bedroom to an overseas student, and you may well guarantee year-round income. This will increase your yield – the proportion of the property’s purchase price secured annually in rent. John Heron of specialist lender Paragon Mortgages says: “There are generally low arrears, as tenancy agreements often benefit from parental guarantees.”

8 Consider using a letting agent

It costs 15-20 per cent of rental income, but this is tax deductible. It means you don’t have to find or vet tenants, suffer late-night queries, visit to chase up rent arrears or find electricians when the fuses blow.

9 Find the best agent firm

The company must be in the Association of Residential Lettings Agents and one of three rival redress services (Property Ombudsman, Property Redress Scheme and Ombudsman Services Property). Insist on seeing its record of lettings to students and check the firm’s reputation with local college accommodation bureaus.

10 After graduation

Being a landlord doesn’t have to end when your offspring goes from college to work. Do some research and be ready to sell if necessary – some colleges are building their own flats, so reducing demand for landlords’ properties in the future. But play it right and your family will have an investment as well as a great education.

On the market

Brighton: Hyde New Homes’ SuperB scheme is four minutes from the University of Brighton’s Grand Parade campus. £275,000 for a one-bedroom flat that would let for £900 per calendar month (01273 964604;www.superbrighton.co.uk).

Bristol: One-bedroom flat in a central development by Cubex, a mile from Bristol Uni campus. £175,000 through Savills (01779 100354), would let at £850 pcm.

Leicester: Just 190 yards from De Montfort University are flats built by Primus. Studios from £68,000, let for £566 pcm (0845 430 4903;www.assetz.co.uk).

Cambridge: Crest Nicholson’s Kaleidoscope scheme is two miles from the university. Two-bedroom flats £405,000 and let for £1,250 pcm (01223 841842; www.bidwells.co.uk).

Plymouth: English Cities Fund’s Quadrant Quay’s two-bedroom flats are a half-mile from the university. £184,950, letting at £650 pcm (01752 948987).

Exeter: Three miles from the university, Charles Church offers four-bedroom homes for multiple students. £317,500 to buy, £1,100 pcm to let. (01392 976138).

Cardiff: 20 minutes’ walk from a range of colleges, Bellway’s Prospect Place scheme has one-bedroom flats for £157,995 to buy, could let for £270 pcm (029 2227 0152).

Sheffield: A Taylor Wimpey two-bedroom flat for just £79,995, four miles from Hallam University. May let for £300 pcm (0114 230 0658).

Bath: One-bedroom flat two miles from the university, from Crest Nicholson, £315,000 to buy and up to £420 pcm to let (01225 288190).

Oxford: Three-bedroom town house at Botley, three miles from central Oxford. £379,995 (01235 244079), could be let for £900 pcm.

Source:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/new-homes/11063352/Parents-guide-to-student-buy-to-let-properties.htm
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