Extra-special Extra Care

Built for PHT Patron Exeter City Council, Edward's Court is the UK's first Passivhaus certified Extra Care facility. Providing 53 social rent & part-ownership apartments with a mix of one and two bedrooms, Edward's Court aims to offer a space where residents can safely maintain an independent lifestyle with various levels of support and care.

Edwards Court Extra Care. Image credit SOLK Photography

Designed to encourage community and companionship among its residents and neighbours, a variety of communal areas are interspersed throughout the 5-storey building, including a quiet spiritual space, café/dining room, multipurpose spaces, gardens, a library and a spa/hairdressing suite, and support staff appartment.

Edwards Court Extra Care © Exeter City Council

With in-depth consultation and research into dementia support across UK care homes and new design thinking, Architype has created a healthy, homely and sociable environment The development offers residents excellent comfort and healthy fresh air as well as fighting fuel poverty.

Architype

Key stats

No. of apartments: 53
Build start date: January 2019
Completion date: September 2022
Construction: Precast Concrete frame with concrete block and brick masonry façade, fully filled with mineral wool.
TFA: 3596 m²
Certified: Passivhaus, June 2022

Edwards Court Extra Care. Image credit: PH Accelerator

The client has an established record of delivering Passivhaus projects and was keen to adopt the standard for their first later years housing scheme. The client understands the benefits of Passivhaus to reduce energy bills and reduce the risk of tenants falling into fuel poverty.

Architype

Wall

U value: 0.209 W/m²K

Floor

U value: 0.25 W/m²K

Roof

U value: 0.134 W/m²K

Edward's Court Extra Care. Image credit: Architype

Predicted energy performance

Airtightness (≤0.6ACH@50pascals)	0.38 @50pascals
Thermal Energy Demand (≤15kWh/m².yr)	12.7 kWh/m².yr
Thermal Energy Load (≤10W/m²)	9 W/m²
Primary Energy Demand (≤120kWh/m².yr)	133* kWh/m².yr

*The primary energy demand is above the typical Passivhaus criteria but an allowance was made, given the requirements of the brief..

Heating & ventilation

A centralised MVHR (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) system has been utilised and split into 4 separate zones served by separate units: north and south apartment zones, communal area zone and commercial kitchen. Heating and hot water for the apartments is supplied via gas boilers centrally, with heating supplied through underfloor heating.

Edwards Court Extra Care. Image credit: Exeter City Council

Shading strategy

The scheme has adopted the council’s Design for Future Climate Change requirements to improve the resilience of the building, using Exeter University’s PROMETHEUS weather data up to 2080.

Window sizes have been carefully optimised to balance daylight and overheating risk, with deep reveals covering the window frames. The south-west facing café/dining space on the top floor has been shaded with a pergola on the roof terrace. The design has provided for the possible later retrofit of exterior shutters to bedrooms, to adapt to future changing summer temperatures. Climbing plants on the balconies will add greenery without damaging the building façade and provide shading to balconies.

Building biology

As well as utilising Passivhaus building physics principles, the scheme has been delivered to meet building biology principles, which reduces physical, chemical and biological risks and eliminates toxic materials and electro-magnetic radiation for a natural, healthy environment. Materials are as natural as possible, with particular care made to avoid skin irritants and ensure optimum air quality.

Edwards Court © Exeter City Council

Challenges & lessons learned

The constraints of the tight site and the need to provide for many residents meant that the project needed to be large and high density.
The need to provide access to direct sunlight to all residents fairly and create a simple form led to an east/west orientation for the project.
The building consists of a series of apartments with separate communal facilities with equipment such as a commercial kitchen, each with its own heat gains. Minimising heat gains (both solar and internal from occupants/equipment) has been a critical feature of the project.
The need for a lot of communal equipment also drove the project's higher primary energy demand. The primary energy demand is just above the typical Passivhaus criteria but an allowance was made, given the brief requirements. The design team needed to pay especial attention to minimising demand from lighting, equipment and plant as much as possible. No unnecessary demands were deemed justifiable.

Designing centralised heating and ventilation plant, with access from service cupboards outside of apartments meant the building management can maintain the plant easily without disturbing residents. This is an approach that the design team will carry into other projects.

Edward's Court Extra Care. Image credit: SOLK Photography

Key team

Client: PHT Patron Exeter City Council
Architect & Passivhaus Designer: PHT Patron Architype
Project Manager/Quantity Surveyor: Arcadis
Main contractor: PHT Patron Kier
Structural engineer: Price & Myers
M&E consultant: E3 Consulting Engineers, Elemental Solutions
Passivhaus certifier: PHT Patron WARM

Exeter City Council is leading the way once again in planning for a high-quality, Passivhaus Extra Care development offering the best to the city's older residents

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Cllr Rachel Sutton, Portfolio Holder for City Development

The Edward's Court Extra Care project was amongst Exeter City Council’s Passivhaus projects discussed during the UK Passivhaus Conference 2022 in Exeter and online on 26 October 2022.