We have secured planning permission for the Ashley Road depot site, a Passivhaus residential project for the London Borough of Haringey. The existing refuse depot, which overlooks Down Lane Park in Tottenham Hale, will be transformed into a low carbon neighbourhood, with 272 new homes for both council rent and market sale.

The development has an exemplary landscape focus, creating almost 4,000 sqm of green space in two courtyards and a residential podium. Two new pedestrian and cycle priority north-south routes connects the existing residential neighbourhood of Park View Road North and West, with Down Lane Park and Tottenham Hale District Centre to the south. 74 new trees are integrated within a sitewide planting strategy, SUDs strategy and with retention of the site’s key existing mature trees. The Urban Greening Factor exceeds the GLA requirements at 0.45 and the Biodiversity Net Gain is an extraordinary 118%.

The project delivers 63% social rented homes and 67% of these are family sized – most of which have their front doors directly onto the street. The project has been designed to meet Passivhaus standards, with the highest levels of fabric energy efficiency, triple glazing and reduced thermal bridging. Windows sizes respond to each orientation, external shutters reduce solar gain and photovoltaic panels on the roofs are some of the measures that have been integrated into the design. All buildings connect to the District Energy Network.

We are delighted to receive planning approval for this ground-breaking project, which can set the benchmark for self-delivered, high quality, sustainable housing in Haringey. Carefully crafted in form, detail and material specification, it integrates a highly biodiverse, native landscape and demonstrates ultra-low levels of energy use and low embodied carbon – exceeding both the LETI and RIBA targets.