Brookwood Farm was the development of 12 eco-friendly family homes in Knaphill, Woking. Comprising of 10 semi-detached houses and 2 detached houses, they incorporate the very latest methods of construction but offer a traditional appearance with natural slate roofs, rustic brick dentil course and arches to blend with the existing street scene.
The development was commissioned by ThamesWey Housing Ltd, a subsidiary of ThamesWey Ltd. Local construction company, William Lacey Sustainable Homes, was awarded the design and build contract to achieve a high quality, low carbon development of family homes.
The development was one of the first in the country to achieve at least a Level 5 rating from the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH), which measures the sustainability of a home against specific design categories, and provides a mark of quality and assurance for homebuyers.
The 10 semi-detached homes on the development were made available on shared ownership basis, whilst the 2 detached five-bedroom homes were placed on the open market for sale.
The new homes are conventional in appearance and layout, whilst featuring innovative energy efficient measures and renewable energy technologies, including:
- Extremely high levels of insulation built into the whole building fabric
- Photovoltaic (PV) solar slates positioned on the roof, which seamlessly integrate into the roof finish, generating electrical energy from the sun
- A high performance gas condensing boiler provides under floor heating and hot water
- Triple-glazed windows and doors
- Built-in rainwater harvesting feeding the toilets and washing machines
- Heat recovery ventilation system
The Brookwood Farm development has played a lead role as a case study of new low carbon development.
The government’s industry task force, Zero Carbon Hub, has show-cased the scheme and the University of Surrey has carried out research on post-occupying performance at Brookwood Farm.