Dobbins Place, Council Housing, Crawley

Dobbins Place, Ifield, Crawley, is the second Passivhaus project carried out by Accredited Passivhaus Design for Crawley Borough Council.

 

This development of four terraced houses and two flats, all with two bedrooms, provides attractive, safe, secure and energy-efficient accommodation for local people. The dwellings overlook public open space.

 

Access to the site is from the service road behind the a local shop, and upon approach to the site the mono-pitch roofs of the flats and the end house of the terrace are seen, providing a visual ‘stop’ to the space. Moving closer to the buildings, the terrace folds away from the store, opening up the space between the houses and the side of the store to provide views to a play area and pond.

 

The external design of the terrace and small block of flats has been kept deliberately simple with mainly render and some brick used to break down the scale and mass. The window proportions are influenced by the requirements of the PHPP (energy modelling software) and are modelled to achieve the optimum balance between heat gain and heat loss for Passivhaus certification. The windows also provide good internal daylighting and views out for residents.

 

Ten car parking spaces are provided for residents and their visitors plus two spaces for motorcycles.