Wensley Road

Going beyond zero carbon.

Wensley Road is a regeneration scheme delivering high quality, sustainable homes. With efficiency at its heart, it aims to be a clean development that will keep costs down for residents.

The scheme consists of 46 dwellings and will lead the way in making Reading Borough Council’s new housing stock carbon neutral.

Modern solutions.

To deliver a future-proofed development, we are aligning construction with Passivhaus principles. The development incorporates low/zero-carbon-energy technologies, and minimises heating requirements and overheating risk through passive design.

We were able to achieve a carbon negative rating for the scheme by combining high-performance building fabric with highly efficient facades. These include triple glazing, very thermally efficient walls and stringent air tightness. U values of 0.13 were achieved in the walls, and 0.8 from the triple glazed windows (with an air permeability of 1).

The highest efficiency PVs (400W panels) and individual air-source heat-pumps per dwelling meet all site heating requirements. This passive-led solution has demonstrated how zero carbon and a highly efficient finish can be achieved without overly complicated engineering solutions.

Enhanced living.

This mixture of low-rise apartments and townhouses will also feature new landscaped areas to both increase biodiversity and provide a children’s play area, seating space and outdoor gym.

The goal is to not just provide affordable homes that align with the Council’s aim to create a net-zero carbon Reading by 2030, but to also deliver an enhanced environment for new and existing residents.