Franklin Gardens Development

In 2004 on a narrow strip of sloping semi brown field land in Spilsby, birthplace of Sir John Franklin, Lincolnshire Rural Housing Association developed 16 rented and 4 shared ownership family homes. 

The site is bounded on all sides by traditional designed housing. On two sides by late Victorian properties and a mixture of modern houses and bungalows on the other two sides. The new development sandwiched between consists of eight three-bedroom and ten two-bedroom houses, together with two two-bedroom bungalows. It provides in comparison a very different contrast to normal social housing standards and design.

A three-storey three-bedroom house is attached to its two storey two-bedroom partner with a mono pitch roof covering the pair. Whilst the mono-pitched roofs face south, the house fronts face eastwards creating an eye-catching jagged roofscape to the sloping site within the mostly flat Lincolnshire landscape.

The scheme concept was to create a comfortable and efficient living envelope for the Association’s customers using innovative environmentally friendly and advanced construction and technological processes. In addition Franklin Gardens has embrace and acknowledged local and central government issues such as density, sustainability, off site manufacturing, partnering in construction, balanced communities and good design.

 In May 2004 Franklin Gardens were commended in the National Housing Federation’s Affordable Home Ownership Awards in the categories of ‘Best Rural Scheme’ and ’Innovation in Affordable Home Ownership’.    

 The innovative design achieves south orientation of properties to take full advantage of solar energy. The use of photovoltaic cells (PV) provides a long term environmentally friendly energy resource. Eighteen of the homes benefit from PV solar roof technology that converts natural sunlight into free electricity for everyday use. Sundog energy installed the Redland PV-700 solar roofing system, which integrated with the Redland Mini-Stonewold concrete tiles. The eighteen properties have 41 panels capable of generating up to 1.44kWp from the south-facing mono-pitch roofs. The 738 panels will generate around 25kWp of electricity. The properties are highly-energy efficient with SAP ratings of up to 115 producing extremely low everyday home running costs.

Timber framed units manufactured off-site from sustainable forests have reduced the impact on the environment. Use of materials and construction techniques has achieved a National House-Building Council’s EcoHomes environmental performance rating of GOOD.

Using the same contractor simultaneously for the Franklin Gardens project and its sister site at Clarkes Close at Eastville, six miles away, took advantage of the partnering process.