National Gold award for Great Bow Yard

Great Bow Yard, Ecos Homes' first mixed-use development of 12 eco-homes and a sympathetically restored Grade II listed warehouse in Langport, has received a Building for Life Gold Standard award.

Building for Life awards are respected as a national benchmark and are awarded to new housing projects that demonstrate a commitment to excellence in design standards and celebrate best practice in the house building industry.

Charles Couzens, Director of Ecos Homes, comments: "We are extremely proud to receive such a highly regarded national accolade and I would like to say thank you to everyone who has worked towards achieving the high standards we set at Great Bow Yard.

The eco-homes at Great Bow Yard were completed in 2005 and since then, we have seen a new kind of community evolve.

Our priority was to combine energy efficient design with the needs of residents and the neighbouring communities, in a way that was sensitive to the surrounding landscape.

"We have welcomed builders, planners and developers to the project and passed on to them the lessons we have learnt.

Our results also show that there is a healthy demand for buildings of this nature.

Our vision is to work towards the wider goal of creating sustainable communities, and this will be seen in our next projects at Stawell and Bridport".

Ecos Homes aims to demonstrate in real life terms the potential and practicalities of a new ecological approach to building and living sustainably.

The Company gives equal weight to environmental and social issues, as well as competing within the commercial market place.

A former brown field site, Great Bow Yard sits next to the Somerset Levels and the River Parrett in the historic town of Langport.

The warehouse, which played an important role in the growth of Langport as a river port, had stood derelict for over a decade, and was identified by the community as the main area of concern in the town.

The warehouse has been sustainably restored and rebuilt to provide seven serviced offices, community space for workshops and events, and a bistro that will serve local and organic produce.

Now restored, the warehouse completes the picture of Great Bow Yard as a mixed-use development - 12 eco-homes, built using state of the art design, and the multi-functional warehouse, brought back to life with sympathetic construction techniques.

Building for Life is a joint initiative between the Commission for Architects and the Built Environment (CABE) and the Home Builders Federation (HBF), and is supported by the Civic Trust, English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation and Design for Homes.

Launched in July 2003, the Building for Life Awards in 2007 were judged by Chairman of Building for Life, Wayne Hemingway, CABE Commissioner, Dickon Robinson and the HBF Executive Chair, Stewart Baseley.

All the properties were designed by architects Stride Treglown of Bristol with engineers Ellis and Moore, and were built by Russell Construction of Clevedon.

The houses maximise the use of sustainably sourced materials, minimising the impact on the environment and avoiding toxic chemicals commonly found in new houses.

They are energy efficient at their core, insulated and soundproofed far above normal standards for UK construction and incorporate renewable energy sources and energy-saving devices.

There are sunspaces in the properties to improve environmental performance and rainwater collectors on the roofs for grey water re-cycling.

Charles concludes: "Great Bow Yard is the first of Ecos Homes' projects and now we are moving forward to break new ground and make homes and buildings that are increasingly carbon neural.".

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