We were invited by the Housing LIN to present two of our recent extra care schemes at one of their 'HAPPI Hour' talks on Tuesday last week. I was joined by Clare and Gillian, as well as our client Liz Alvey from Westminster Council, who gave the client perspective.

For those who don’t know, the Housing LIN (Learning and Improvement Network) is a fantastic source of information about supported housing. They promote good practice in all areas of older peoples housing in particular, with case studies, seminars, research and an annual conference.

Our talk was focused on sustainability – we used Carlton Dene to explore the challenges of meeting Passivhaus standards on an older peoples housing scheme (not always easy), and The Courtyards in Preston to promote our thoughts on wellbeing through connections with nature and the outdoors and how well they have been achieved in reality.

Both schemes featured in this year’s Housing Design Awards, with The Courtyards being shortlisted and Carlton Dene winning the one HAPPI Award they gave out. So, David Birkbeck, who runs Design for Homes and the Housing Design Awards, also presented a short intro to the awards and the reasons why Carlton Dene won.

We’re very proud of both schemes, so it was great to see so many people attend the session and ask a lot of questions at the end. Find a recording of the talk here.