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Well, we were a group of four friends, all from the Green Party and we just thought it
would be a good idea to live together. As we started to think how we would live together,
we came across the idea of cohousing.
Because it's a cohousing project rather than just a collection of Passivhauses, we have
the aspect of community but the design of the site encourages interaction, so you can't
walk down the street without seeing people that you know, because you know all your neighbours.
But also that encourages sharing of things, so you're saving time and money by living
here because of sharing all the facilities.
When we first got it, it was an industrial site with old engineering workshop buildings
on it and it was on a 45 degree slope from the north to the south. The northern boundary
is against fields and the southern boundary is against the River Lune, so we have fantastic
solar access.
With Paul Jennings, has that been a good team effort? Yeah, very, very good. He's been really
helpful, especially with some of the issues we've had on E Block. Absolute boon to have
on site, to be honest.
The most significant thing is going beyond the Passivhaus criteria and embellishing it
to make a wonderful place to live.
Well, what I'm particularly proud of is that we've delivered 41 Passivhauses but we've
delivered them to the local market value, so there hasn't been a premium added onto
the houses.
I daren't even say this. It's actually been relatively easy because everybody's known
what they're doing, everybody's been involved from a very early stage and we've all kind
of supported and helped each other to make it a success.