2010 WINNING SCHEMES > Project Winners

 

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Derwenthorpe should be in the Winner’s book amongst the other Project Winners, but it nearly didn’t win because of a hitch that had nothing to do with our banks or planning system. It was all down to EU tendering rules. The judges had chosen to give it an award when they met in late March. Then the award had to be suspended because of a legal challenge. Then Brussels changed its mind and the scheme is now going forward and with HCA backing.

York is under tremendous pressure for family homes close to all its jobs and amenity, so this was a case of bringing land forward under a ‘Very Special Circumstances” claim on the basis this was where people needed more housing most. It seems a safe move to make when the developer is none other than the Joseph Rowntree Trust, which built the exemplary New Earswick village scheme in the same area at the beginning of the last century when similar issues about housing supply dominated.

This new scheme owes a lot to that, reinterpreting Parker and Unwin’s Arts and Craft style. The difference will be in the scheme’s energy footprint. Besides putting people as close as possible to work and leisure to cut travel, 61 of the 64 homes will be built to the Code Level 4 with three more to higher levels of the Code. With the prototypes already built and being monitored, the first phase of Derwenthorpe is set to become an important step toward a low-carbon exemplar in this country.

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