Tarmac Homes Project

The viable zero-carbon home built with traditional materials

It’s the holy grail of UK housebuilding: how to build affordable zero-carbon homes in volume using conventional materials. Now, Britain’s housebuilders and housing associations can draw upon a blueprint for a zero-carbon home built using traditional masonry materials.

The Tarmac Homes project, a test-bed initiative led by Tarmac, affordable housing developer Lovell and The University of Nottingham’s Department of the Built Environment, has built two landmark homes – one to Level 4 and the other to Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes – the Government’s zero-carbon target for all new homes by 2016.

Both properties are traditional, semi-detached homes built using brick and block materials to maximise their thermal efficiency.

The project, which also tested the commercial viability of building low and zero-carbon homes, provides the housing industry with an indication of the current costs to meet the Government’s residential carbon reduction targets.

The Code for Sustainable Homes does not come with a set of instructions on the box to help housebuilders choose the correct mix of materials and renewable technologies to build a zero-carbon home. It was therefore important to use this test-bed project to try and develop a commercial house type which can be built using tried-and-tested products and techniques that have been favoured by UK builders for decades. This makes the initiative both practical and commercially viable.

There is a common industry misconception that timberframe is the only option to deliver sustainable housing. The Tarmac Homes project is an important test-bed site to demonstrate that UK manufactured, low carbon materials will and can play a vital role in delivering the Government’s 2016 zero-carbon homes target.

It is important that concrete products are judged not just on embodied energy, but on their environmental performance in-situ. Buildings are the sum of all parts and delivering low and zero-carbon homes is not a ‘tick box’ exercise where only the highest rated products in the Green Guide are specified. Critically, it is about assembling a sustainable package which delivers long-term efficiency in-situ.

Concrete and masonry products can help to increase the thermal mass of a property and as part of an integrated design strategy, can play an important role in ‘futureproofing’ our homes.

Both properties will provide accommodation for visiting academics at the University of Nottingham and a major programme of monitoring will analyse the energy usage and thermal efficiency as well as how occupants potentially have to adapt to living in a Code Level 6 property.

For more information, including a 3D virtual tour of the homes, visit the Tarmac Homes Project website.