Planning Success for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice
Posted on February 16th 2017
Hodkinson Consultancy is delighted to have supported the successful planning application for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in Barnet. Noah’s Ark currently supports around 150 children and their families at home and in the community. The new hospice building will enable the charity to care for more than 450 children and their families. The Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice is a charity …
Housing White Paper – Overheating?
Posted on February 16th 2017
The long awaited Housing White Paper was published on 7th February 2017. We are pleased to note that the Government is consulting on proposals to amend the list of climate change factors set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to include rising temperatures. Over time this would result in more consideration of overheating at planning stage. These requirements …
Can Daylight Standards be met Without Overheating?
Posted on February 6th 2017
We are constantly faced with the need to balance solar gain in a dwelling to maximise internal daylight standards, whilst at the same time minimising overheating risk. Large glazed areas and glazing with high transmittance are required to achieve high levels of natural daylight. Reduced glazing areas, effective solar shading and darker glass are most desirable to mitigate against overheating. …
Improving Build Quality through Post Occupancy Evaluation
Posted on January 13th 2017
We currently monitor buildings for a number of our clients to provide valuable feedback on post-occupancy performance, to ensure that lessons are learnt going forwards and that the most efficient arrangements are used for future projects. This improves the overall performance of buildings, minimises the performance gap, and ensures that buildings operate effectively for their occupants. Post occupancy evaluation (POE) …
Environmental Performance Considerations when Selecting Glazing
Posted on January 13th 2017
Glazing is usually one of the most expensive packages within the construction process. It is therefore essential that all glazing requirements are considered and appropriate glazing specified to secure best value. The main issues to consider with glazing are: Acoustic levels Daylighting Levels Solar Heating Thermal Efficiency Acoustic Glazing To meet acoustic requirements set out in BS8233:2014 acoustic glazing is …
Christmas Quiz 2016 Winner Announced
Posted on December 23rd 2016
We are delighted to announce that the winner of our 2016 Christmas quiz is Alan Chitson of Grainger PLC. Alan generously nominated the Step by Step charity to receive our £500 donation, a charity that work with homeless young people and those facing adversity to help them to achieve their full potential. Thank you to all those who took part and congratulations to everyone else …
Christmas Quiz
Posted on December 7th 2016
The winner of our quiz will be able to nominate a charity to receive a £500 donation from us. The Christmas tree has been a tradition in which country since 700 AD? France Germany Spain What year was H.M. Queen’s Christmas speech first broadcast on television? 1957 1958 1959 Sir Henry Cole is credited with introducing the world to which …
Improve Thermal Bridging to Reduce Wall Thickness
Posted on December 7th 2016
Thermal bridging analysis offers a cost-effective way to achieve carbon dioxide reduction targets required by many planning authorities, as well as the fabric targets required by Part L. We have recently helped a client reduce wall thickness from 360mm to 290mm by offering advanced thermal bridging analysis (equivalent to a U-value relaxation from 0.16 W/m2K to 0.2 W/m2K), as well …
Shelter Launches Living Home Standard
Posted on December 6th 2016
Last month, the housing and homelessness charity Shelter launched their new Living Home Standard which aims to be the housing equivalent of the Living Wage. It outlines the minimum requirements that should be expected of a home in order to secure wellbeing and provide a secure foundation from which people can live and build their lives. The standard can be …
Specialist Advice for Community Heating
Posted on December 6th 2016
Over the past two months we have successfully assisted our clients on eight developments in London to tender and award £8.54m of district heating contracts. The scope of the contracts included: Design & Build of Energy Centres and heat networks; Operation, maintenance and customer services of completed plant rooms and heat networks. Whilst the scope of the individual tenders varied, …