We are delighted that the Reserved Matters relating to the West Park Outline planning approval were granted consent by Exeter planning committee on 19th June.

Since 2019, we have been working with the University of Exeter on this ambitious project.

The project is a student residential development on their Streatham Campus, housing over 2000 undergraduate students. It comprises of circa 50,000m² of new build accommodation built to Passivhaus standards. The wider scheme also involves the deep EnerPHit retrofit of an existing early 2000’s residential block and the relocation of the University’s grounds compound to a new purpose-built facility on the campus.

In addition to the challenges of delivering Passivhaus, the site is highly constrained. The site is steeply sloping with a gradient of up to 1 in 6 in places. It is flanked to the north and south by private residential dwellings, to the west by an internationally recognised pinetum and to the east by further university residential buildings.

The scheme was granted outline permission in 2021 and was successfully tendered by the University in October 2022. We are now working for the University’s preferred development partner UPP on the detailed stages of the project prior to construction of the first of eight new build blocks.

We have an excellent team of consultants drawing on a wealth of experience in Passivhaus, including Passivhaus designers Architype, MEP consultants Max Fordham and Structural and Civil Engineers Airey and Coles.

Collaborating with the Contractor Grahams Construction, we are finessing the design constantly. The current design, at RIBA Stage 4, has an average EUI (EnergyUsage Intensity) of just 45.4 kWh/m²a, compared to the Russell Group median residential EUI of 198.8 kWh/m²a (based on HESA data). This is a 74% reduction in operational energy use.

Not only are these buildings collectively using less energy to function, but we are also generating 38% of that energy using renewable on-site generation.

We believe that this Passivhaus scheme will set the standard for new build student accommodation, deliver a brilliant student experience, and make an invaluable contribution to Exeter University’s journey towards net zero carbon.