BedZed

The site was formerly owned by the London Borough of Sutton, which made it available for this sustainable development at low cost. Ideas for the project grew from theoretical work done by Bill Dunster and presented at a 1996 symposium. He also identified the site, primarily chosen for its excellent public transport links, and formed a partnership to develop an affordable, mixed-use model of urban sustainability with BioRegional Development Group (an environmental organisation working to bring local sustainability into mainstream business and industry). The Peabody Trust had both the vision to develop this innovative scheme and the commitment to investigate seriously the potential of higher density sustainable urban development. Planning permission was granted in 1999.

Section 106 Agreements covered the sports facility and pitch as well as integrated transport provision. The high density development offers reasonably priced accommodation with considerable savings on fuel and water. BedZed's Green Transport Plan aimed to halve its private fossil fuel mileage and is focused on reducing the need to travel, encouraging public transport use and offering practical alternatives to private cars. This allowed Peabody Trust to argue at planning stage for a 50% reduction in car parking on the BedZed site, with annual on-site parking fees for residents and businesses, and prioritised parking spaces for disabled drivers, electric/LPG vehicles and cars with smaller engines. With such tight controls on car use, BedZED is believed to be the first housing development to have a legally-binding green transport plan as a condition of planning permission and thus sets a valuable precedent.

The project adopted a 35 mile radius limit for local sourcing of brick, concrete aggregate and precast floor planks and hardwood is obtained from approved sources, while second hand construction materials are also used. The nature of the project dictated some unusual and costly infrastructure requirements, and the high cost of photovoltaic panels (around US$780,000) was offset in part by EU funds, with additional subsidies from the UK government and local energy supplier SEEBOARD, and partly by using them as cladding panels, bringing overall infrastructure costs to around £300,000 on a small (1.65 hectare) site. An additional £640,000 has been estimated for the combined heat and power (CHP) unit with costs based on £61/m² over total area of buildings. Construction cost of the 82 residential units was £6,920,000, with 34 units for outright sale, 23 as shared ownership schemes, 10 let to key workers at low cost rents and the remaining 15 as social housing.

Earlier versions of the masterplan had fewer unit types, a larger village square and vehicle access for work units (their image 9) as well as external conservatories. Client accommodation requirements, standardisation of construction, building physics analysis, availability of suitable products and materials and value engineering contributed to the revised final built scheme.