Project 80 has launched with hopes to provide strong evidence for securing masonry’s place in a sustainable future.
The launch of Midland Heart’s pioneering social and sustainable housing project took place in Birmingham earlier in March and resident handovers begin this month.
The first of its kind, the programme is a series of projects by Midland Heart and Tricas Construction to create homes that will meet, and eventually go beyond, the 2025 Future Homes Standard (FHS). For the project’s initial 12 homes, 3 different material and technology combinations have been used, resulting in different levels of CO2 reductions, all within FHS levels.
Birmingham City University will be testing the different combinations to provide evidence for future decisions that need to be made about how to construct the resilient, energy efficient homes that will help the UK reach its climate goals.
H+H attended the launch of Project 80, along with the other suppliers involved, in an exciting show of industry collaboration that is hoping to pave the way for the future of residential construction in the UK.
Resilience and collaboration were the words of the day as speakers from Midland Heart, Tricas Construction and Birmingham City University and the Mayor of the West Midlands discussed the importance of Project 80 for the future of UK homes and the construction industry.
Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, kicked off the launch by discussing the sustainability challenges facing the region. Domestic housing has proved to be the most difficult to tackle, accounting for one third of the region's carbon emissions, he claimed. Project 80 is bringing hope, with that idea being that its results will provide a marketable, scalable answer to the FHS as well as setting an example for future collaboration within the construction industry. This will not only help the West Midlands achieve a sustainable future, but the whole nation as well.
In an introductory video shown at the launch, Tom Hall, Technical Design Manager at Tricas Construction commented: “This project in particular is exciting for us at Tricas Construction and as a construction industry because it allows us to look forward to what we will be doing in the years to come to meet legal regulations and ultimately to reduce our carbon output.”
The first resident handovers are scheduled to be happening in March. Birmingham City University will conduct pre-occupancy resident interviews as part of their research and to help the residents understand how to best operate their new homes.
H+H is proud to be involved in a project, through supplying our aircrete products and technical services, that will pave the way for future UK homes and set an example for purposeful industry collaboration that contributes to the vision of a better, more sustainable future with masonry building at its core.
Read our introductory blog on Project 80 here.