Thursday 22 October 2009

Loncin Petal Valley, Chongqing, China by PCKO on AJ

Loncin Petal Valley, Chongqing, China by PCKO

The project, covering approx 45ha in a mountainous location near the Fairy Mountain National Park in Chongqing Province, aims to ‘create a low-impact but high-quality, calm and reflective architecture within the lush landscape, taking advantage of dramatic topography and spectacular views’. Construction is due to start on site this year.

Read more: http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/loncin-petal-valley-chongqing-china-by-pcko/5208274.article

PCKO achieves Gold and Silver again!

Horns Cross

Banks Yard, achieved Gold Standard and Stone Rise achieved Silver Standard in this years Building for Life Awards.

'The assessors' view was that Banks Yard is an excellent scheme that offers both great living spaces and a high quality public realm.'
Building for Life

'The assessors' view was that Stone Rise meets the challenges of a very difficult site…The use of the £60K house type leads to very high performance standards…’
Building for Life

PCKO has increased their portfolio of projects achieving a Building for Life Standard Award and have a proven track record of delivering successful schemes that demonstrate compliance with Building for Life standards. PCKO provided pre-assessment services for both schemes including production and collation of evidence and submission materials.

Building for Life is a measure of how dwellings integrate with the urban and public realm including aspects of community, safety, legibility and access to facilities. Many of these aspects are not bolt on functions; they need to be included as core elements very early in the design and development process. PCKO can offer objective pre-assessment for all our residential projects, supported by our continued success and design expertise in this field.

Other PCKO schemes include Cala Domus, Newhall, Building for Life Gold Standard Award and Fishing Village, St. Mary’s Island, Building for Life Silver Standard Award.

Banks Yard for Octavia Housing

Banks Yard in Hounslow provides 10 affordable homes for rent, two of which are wheelchair accessible and 18 for shared-ownership, which are designed to Lifetime Homes Standards. Although they exceed minimum space requirements the homes were designed to be affordable to buy and affordable to run, with 10% of the renewable energy the homes use being produced onsite through solar water-heating. Heat recovery whole house ventilation and high performance timber framed external envelope help to achieve high environmental performance. The design produces a high quality of natural lighting within the homes through large windows and each home has its own private space, through either a garden or balcony.

Main contractor: Inspace Partnerships
Key consultants: Conisbee (Structural engineers), Bristow Johnson & Partners (Employer agent & cost consultant), Allen Pyke Associates (Landscape architects)

Read more: http://www.pcko.co.uk/projects_24.htm

Stone Rise for Countryside Consortium (including Countryside in Partnership and Hyde Housing Group)

Three house types were designed derived from the same generic core concept (living wall, flexible space, gallery zone), which can deliver differing internal and external characteristics. The concept can generate a variety of street frontages within an overall unifying rational discipline and with a flexibility that responds to orientation and site specific contexts from suburban to urban. The intention of our competition entry was to demonstrate that it is possible to deliver high quality housing at radically reduced cost involving off site manufacturing. While the Stone Rise site was too small to fully utilize volumetric prefabrication, houses and flats were constructed using a highly rationalised timber frame system, fabricated on site using an innovative micro-factory system of production.

Main contractor: Countryside Properties in Partnership
Key consultants: Brand Leonard (Structural Engineer), Waterstone Design (Building Services Engineer)

Read more: http://www.pcko.co.uk/projects_23.htm

For further information contact Peter or Andrew

Banks Yard Wins! Best Small Development Affordable Home Ownership Awards 2009

Banks Yard


Client: Octavia Housing

Banks Yard scheme in Hounslow has won the Best Small Development Award at the Affordable Home Ownership Awards 2009, hosted by Property Ladder’s Sarah Beeny.

The Affordable Home Ownership Awards recognise excellent low-cost home-ownership developments, whilst specifically looking for the Best Small Development to have demonstrated a successful build in a restricted space without having compromised on design and quality.

Banks Yard in Hounslow provides 10 affordable homes for rent, two of which are wheelchair accessible and 18 for shared-ownership, which are designed to Lifetime Homes Standards. Although they exceed minimum space requirements the homes were designed to be affordable to buy and affordable to run, with 10% of the renewable energy the homes use being produced onsite through solar water-heating. Heat recovery whole house ventilation and high performance timber framed external envelope help to achieve high environmental performance. The design produces a high quality of natural lighting within the homes through large windows and each home has it’s own private space, through either a garden or balcony.

The architectural design is based on the concept of two differing groups of 2, 3 and 4 storey buildings, configured to respond in a visually and functionally attractive way to Heston Park, the architectural character of New Heston Road and the existing urban context. Individual blocks are oriented to maximise the benefits of both the existing mature planting on site and of the adjacent park land.

Courtyards are configured as a safe pedestrian friendly environment with high quality landscaping to create a sense of place.

Main contractor: Inspace Partnerships

Key consultants: Conisbee (Structural engineers), Bristow Johnson & Partners (Employer agent & cost consultant), Allen Pyke Associates (Landscape architects)

Read more: http://www.pcko.co.uk/projects_24.htm

For further information contact Peter or Dinos