We Visit the People’s Pod for the First Time at Energy House 2.0

This week we reached a major milestone in our “People’s Pods” initiative with a visit to the Energy House 2.0 official launch event to see a completed pod for the first time. We have worked with partners Casey, Emmaus Salford and the University of Salford’s Energy House 2.0 Team to develop pioneering proposals for new energy efficient accommodation for the homeless.

The aim of the initiative is to upgrade and refurbish redundant site cabins to provide a warm and safe place for rough sleepers to stay on a temporary basis. The thermal properties of a cabin were initially evaluated in the Energy House 2.0 under winter conditions with the team making recommendations in terms of upgrading the structural insulation and the heating system to provide a warm and comfortable environment with low running costs.

AEW are in a unique position to combine our in house sustainability and architectural teams to study this research and, through collaborative workshopping in the studio, have developed a prototype design to transform the cabin into a sustainable, energy efficient, sleeping pod.

Joe Flanagan, Energy House 2.0 Project Manager, at the University of Salford, said:

“Our unique Energy House 2.0 facility will have many uses, working with house builders and industry to help improve the efficiency of all our homes. But it can also be used for things like this to help give back and provide real benefits to the local community. We are proud to work with Emmaus to help develop better solutions for the homeless to help them keep warm in the colder months and will provide a stepping stone to a more stable future.”

Jackie Smith, Business Development Manager at Emmaus Salford, said: “Our first four pods opened in May 2020 and have helped many people off the streets, access support and into more permanent housing. Casey has kindly donated eight more cabins which we plan to refurbish to a high standard, both for the people who will be using them and for the planet.”

Energy House 2.0 is a pioneering facility at the University of Salford, it contains two environmental chambers within which they can recreate a wide variety of weather conditions. The project is receiving up to £8,244,043 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.

For more details on Energy House 2.0, visit the website and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.