Certification for Newham's first Passivhaus scheme
The Plashet Road scheme, comprising 65 affordable homes and a nursery, is the first of Newham Council's ambitious Passivhaus programme to achieve certification. Plashet Road is a 5-storey multi-residential building with a nursery on the ground floor and 65 flats. The new homes at Plashet Road built across three blocks, overlooking a central courtyard.
The project has been designed by PHT members Levitt Bernstein, with PHT member Etude as Passivhaus Consultant. PHT Patron Max Fordham were M&E Designers on the project, which was certified by PHT Patron WARM.
The form and layout of the building has evolved in response to key Passivhaus design principles as well as the orientation of the site. Gallery access routes have been located to the north or east of each building to enable the majority of balconies, living rooms, and bedrooms to be south- or west-facing to optimise daylight and solar gain. This layout also ensures that all flats are dual aspect, optimising natural ventilation and daylight.
The site is bounded by twelve mature London plane trees, all of which have been retained. The new homes are therefore set deep within the site to avoid the root protection area and providing spacious green areas between the new building and the street.
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Key stats
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As we continue to fight against an acute national housing crisis especially harder in London and Newham, as a Council, we are more focused than ever on building new high-quality homes for our residents that will stand the climate emergency for the years to come.
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, Newham Council
Construction
The project is constructed using concrete frame construction with masonry infill, insulated with blown mineral wool insulation.
Embodied carbon
Although the project is built with a concrete structural frame, studies carried out by structural engineers led to strategies to minimise embodied carbon of materials used, and in some situations layouts were adjusted to minimise embodied carbon.
U-values |
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Roof: 0.1 W/m2K Cast in situ concrete slab, PIR insulation and single ply membrane finish. |
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Wall: 0.142 W/m2K Concrete frame with blockwork infill, full fill cavity brick walls with blown mineral wool insulation. |
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Floor: 0.1 W/m2K Piled concrete foundation. PIR insulation on slab with screed finish. |
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Further information can be found at the International Passivhaus Database listing
Building performance
Designed energy performance |
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Airtightness n50 (≤ 0.6ACH @ 50 Pa)
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0.57 @ 50 Pa
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Space Heating Demand (≤ 15 kWh/m².a)
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19 kWh/m².a
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Heating Load (≤ 10 W/m²)
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10 W/m²
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Primary Energy Renewable (PER) Demand (≤ 60 kWh/m².a*)
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60 kWh/m².a
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*+/-15 kWh/m².a allowance if offset by energy generation. See Passivhaus criteria.
We are delighted to have been part of the design and delivery of these new Passivhaus certified and low carbon homes for Newham. The rigour of the Passivhaus standard helped focus on delivering a high-quality building, through quality checks of calculations, documentation and construction by the independent Passivhaus Certifier, WARM. The outcome will be low energy bills and low carbon emissions for residents, over the entire life of the building.
Will South, Passivhaus Designer, Etude
Services
The design team worked closely to develop the low carbon heating and hot water strategy, comparing options for future carbon emissions, capital cost, energy costs for the residents, maintenance and space requirements.
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Heating strategy: Communal air source heat pumps on the roof providing supply air heating to heat each home, supplemented by a direct electric heating system in each home as a backup.
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On-site generation: Roof design aimed to maximise PV generation capacity, now or in the future.
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Summer comfort: Overheating risk is minimised on the project through use of shading from balcony overhangs, alongside careful window size optimisation. Metal railings promote natural ventilation and daylight through adjacent glazed doors that lead in to living rooms behind. Opening vents above fixed panes also increase natural ventilation efficiency.
Challenges & lessons learned
- Door specification: It was challenging to find a range of door suppliers that could meet the project's fire and security requirements in addition to the thermal performance requirements.
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Thermal bridging around windows: A minor mistake in window installation needed to be rectified through use of insulated reveal boards to reduce thermal bridging for some windows.
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Specification changes: On site specification changes to the masonry support angle resulted in additional remediation details.
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Photography during construction phase: The documentation and evidencing process may have been assisted by more regular photographing on site of particular details during the construction and installation phase.
Architect’s viewWe are proud of having delivered 65 low energy homes at Plashet Road, a project driven by sustainability and passive principles at its heart. This development contributes to our fundamental values of delivering people-led, high quality sustainable housing that is inclusive and accessible. Preservation of the boundary of perimeter trees was a priority, so the new homes needed to sit inside of this, with a green buffer created between the surrounding streets and front gardens. Initial studies showed that the number of new homes could be optimised through a courtyard development with a shared amenity space at its heart. Multiple communal entrances would be required, each one creating views through to the garden within. We worked closely with our in-house sustainability team and with Etude to develop the layouts and massing, adopting a fabric-first approach and a set of design principles which responded to the site orientation and Passivhaus criteria. Nicola Jaques, Associate, Levitt Bernstein |
Key team
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Congratulations to Newham Council and all the team for the successful delivery of the council's first certified Passivhaus project, the first of many in the pipeline. Hear Levitt Bernstein share more about future homes & London Passivhaus developments at Futurebuild 2025. Join us on Tuesday 4th March 2025 at the buildings stage.
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Further information
Plashet Road, Newham: Levitt Bernstein
Passivhaus Benefits Guide & costs research
Previous PHT Story: London housing projects loom large - 15 December 2022
Previous PHT Story: 400+ Passivhaus push for Newham Council Housing - 9 June 2022
Previous PHT Story: Green light for 65 Passivhaus homes in Newham - 3 August 2021
1st February 2025
Get involved with the UK Passivhaus community
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