Design Buy Build Issue 19 2016 | Page 6

Housing Innovation Awards 2016 In 2016 John McCall Architects will reach the 25th anniversary as an architectural practice, designing all forms of housing for sale, rent and for people with special needs, along with commercial and community architecture, focused on the aspirations of clients, users and residents. We believe that sustainability should be central to every project and that client and end user energy costs should be mitigated to reduce levels of fuel poverty. The company is run by 4 directors and 2 associate directors providing leadership to the senior and junior staff in a flat hierarchy to provide excellent experience and opportunity for personal advancement in training and career prospects within the business. Staff retention is consequently high and most of the senior staff have been with the practice since qualifying. As architects our desire is to build great buildings which meet the client brief, provide good spaces inside the building and benefit the local community. We also aim to enjoy doing it! From the inception of the practice we have endeavoured to provide a service which focusses on the client and end users. Wherever possible we provide sustainable solutions and design our buildings to provide low energy and low running cost homes. The house at Lang Lane was designed to provide the highest level of thermal performance within a defined budget. The design used the Passivhaus methodology as the background concept, but altered to improve buildability, cost efficiency and environmental performance. The intention was to reduce the energy usage to within the Passivhaus target, but in use it has proved to exceed this, achieving annual energy costs of £15 per annum and a CO2 output of just 11Kg. Throughout the life of our practice we have established a reputation for being able to deliver economical, well designed high quality schemes for our clients. The practice is value focused on our client’s requirements and we ensure that our team have a clear understanding of our client’s delivery needs and aspirations and bring to the team a right first time collaborative approach to provide best value for money. By addressing all of the ways that buildings waste energy, exceptionally low energy bills for the householder have been accomplished. The strategy addresses the 5 main issues of orientation, insulation, air tightness, thermal mass and volume which were carefully considered along with heating, ventilation and energy generation to maximise the thermal performance of the house. 6