LREF 2017: The head of Quintain’s build-to-rent scheme in Wembley park, has described to an LREF audience six lessons he learned from six separate schemes at the site about housing development.
“This is about the specific things we’ve managed to get into the projects that are coming out of the ground today. Each of them was met with several versions of ‘no’ before we got ‘yes’, and I’m talking about the ‘yes’s’,” began Michael Allen, managing director of Tipi, a Quintain company that owns and manages Wembley Park and other residential schemes.
Here are his six steps:
Stack your apartments
“Everyone knows you need to stack apartment to get your pipes in order. The real trick is to alter the unit mix as you go up and keep the soil vent pipes in the same place. We managed to do this in one scheme. We have three- and four-bedroom flats directly beneath one and two-bedroom flats, and the bathrooms all line up.”
Use a central heating system
“Change the heating system from individual units to a central system. Instead of having 700 individual units like those on the left (see picture) we’ve now got seven of those on the right. From a management and operations perspective this is a big win.”
Hide the mechanical equipment
“Another way we’ve been able to eliminate bits of mechanical equipment from within the residence is to achieve acoustical performance standards that are set out by planning, through non-mechanical means. So, we’ve got an air brick with a sound attenuation feature (see picture left) in lieu of an NVHR (natural ventilation with heat recycling) solution.”
Number the rooms like hotels
“This was a tough one. Previously apartment number 25 was on the third floor. No matter how many times I did tours, I could never find it. So what we got through building control was a hotel numbering system – 327 was directly beneath flat 427 and they were on the third and fourth floors respectively.”
Send all waste through pipes
“This is unique to us because we are developing a large estate all at once. To accommodate the volume of waste being produced by the residents, we installed a giant set of pipes that takes trash away to a central location. This reduces the need for bins, bin rooms and bin trucks. We reduced the amount of bin truck movement by 75% and we also liberated 17,000 sq ft of space for more valuable uses like retail.”
Customer comes first
“We feel passionate about all the above innovations, but the reality is they don’t really matter as much as you think they do. What matters most are your customers and how you treat them.”
To send feedback, e-mail Rebecca.Kent@egi.co.uk or tweet @Writer_RKent or @estatesgazette
