BedZED is the UK’s largest mixed use, carbon-neutral development. When it was built in 2002, it set new standards in sustainable building. BedZED comprises 82 affordable dwellings in a mixture of flats, maisonettes and town houses, and approximately 2500 m2 of workspace/ office, and is built on a brownfield site.
“The Beddington Zero Energy Development, or BedZED, is the UK’s best-known eco-village. The multi-award winning development is one of the most coherent examples of sustainable living in the UK.”
This impartial statement is taken from a ‘7 years on’ review of the project by Bioregional. The project itself was delivered by housing association The Peabody Trust. Some problems have been reported with the (admittedly very ambitious) scheme: a woodchip boiler now running on gas, water recycling facility was not cost effective, passive solar heating being too high in the summer and too low in the winter, a nearby allotment never materialised. The units were specified to be 1/3 social housing, 1/3 shared ownership and 1/3 private.
The report also concludes that the residents are living, on average a ‘1.7 planet’ lifestyle; which, while clearly above the ‘1.0 planet’ target was still substantially better than the UK average of roughly ‘3.0 planets’.
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