How Cudd Bentley is contributing to age inclusive design principles

On the 25th of April, our Director of Sustainability, Sushil Pathak, will be speaking at a conference in London on age-inclusive design principles. The purpose of this conference is to gather a range of industry partners from design, housing, and technology to contribute to a research project that is aimed at helping the UK industry meet the wellness needs of an ageing population.

As part of our practice as sustainability consultants, we adopt various recognisable methodologies to ensure the projects we are involved in meet best practices in environmental design. One such scheme is the BREEAM methodology, which has become the recognised industry measure of buildings and environmental performance.

As part of this conference and as one of the KTP research partners, we will be speaking about a strategy that will enable this project to achieve BREEAM Excellent that can be adopted across a variety of care home-building projects. BREEAM has been used since 1990 and has the following aims:

• To mitigate the impacts of buildings on the environment.
• To enable buildings to be recognised according to their environmental benefits.
• To provide a credible environmental label for buildings.
• To stimulate demand for sustainable buildings.

It is a well-documented fact that our environment impacts our well-being, and in the context of Later Living, we believe BREEAM categories with a focus on health and well-being give us a concrete target from the outset of any project to facilitate pleasant environments that contribute to happy and healthy living. Here are some of the key steps that we will address at the conference:

• Importance of consideration of visual comfort in spaces with adequate views out, internal, and external lighting, daylighting, and glare control measures.
• Focus on ventilation measures to improve and maintain good indoor air quality. Thermal modelling to ensure comfort both in the current climate and future climate change scenarios.
• Consideration of acoustic performance with testing to ensure compliant noise insulation between rooms.
• Consultation with a security expert and recommendations implemented to ensure the safety of occupants.
• Spaces with safe access for pedestrians and cyclists as well as suitable outdoor immunity space.

Later Living net zero pathway

Building design projects in general, not just as part of the Later Living project, are subject to net zero targets, reducing embodied carbon and whole-life carbon assessments. We will encompass National and global aims within the context of generating positive environments and spaces for this ageing segment of society. Our aim is for Later Living projects to be zero-combustion developments and propose using centralised air source heat pumps that will give an ambient loop of water at approximately 25°. This would mean each apartment can draw or reject heat into the loop and regulate the temperature of the apartment based on occupants’ individual needs.

Our sustainability team recommend heat pumps as they are significantly more efficient than traditional boilers with a fraction of the carbon footprint. We will also discuss the utilisation of solar panels to generate electricity in these developments.

The aspiration and goals of the Cudd Bentley team are to provide best-in-class, MEP, and sustainability support to the KTP project. By contributing to this conference and delivering our strategy, we aim to provide value as part of an overall set of principles and framework that deliver Later Living homes that are comfortable, healthy spaces. We are also aiming to reach the highest standards in sustainable practice by targeting BREEAM Excellent and aspiring to achieve net zero.

Get your tickets here for the upcoming Age-Inclusive Design Principles event on Thursday 25th April.