Rural Housing Association Launch Competition For a New Rural Design Guide
Rural Housing Association has always aimed to build appropriate rural houses for rural people in rural settings. How these houses ‘look and work’ is an important part of what they are and what they do. The Association is therefore about to launch a competition for the preparation of a Rural Technical Design Guide for new build rural social housing schemes in Northern Ireland.
The new guide will consider the key factors in the design and delivery of rural schemes. It will look at their local settings; Sustainable Development in the Countryside (PPS21); and Building on Tradition, Code for Sustainable Home principles to achieve zero carbon and the reduced energy loss of a passive home (Passivhaus).
Rural Housing Association’s Acting Chief Executive, Stephen Fisher, commented:
‘We see design as an essential part of successful rural social housing and as the specialised rural housing provider we feel best placed to lead on the production of a guide for future sustainable rural new build. Conservation – in our eyes the conservation of communities; heritages; cultures; and energy - will be central to it. We want to pull together a guide that can act as a template in years to come for social housing providers throughout rural Northern Ireland and beyond.’
The Association will be advertising shortly for expressions of interest.
