New Homes with Tenants First
The Committee of Management at Tenants First is committed to building new homes to expand membership, increase the Co-operative’s assets and meet the 21st century needs of our communities. In this regard, Tenants First has a clear vision for new housing; that it must be of the highest quality in design and construction, should promote innovation and create the most affordable, comfortable and adaptable living environment for our members.
The following areas are key to our thinking for new developments;
Sense of Place
As an award winning developer, we understand the importance of developing neighbourhoods that have strong identity, character, and recognition of the heritage of their location. We believe the ‘Homezone’ concept should be incorporated to create safe, attractive and interactive streets.
Cost in Use
It is of prime importance that members find our homes affordable to live in. Therefore, we introduce design concepts which maximise the performance of the building ‘envelope’. That is to say, we aim to make our homes as fully sealed, insulated, ventilated and thermally efficient as possible to avoid heat loss, stabilise temperatures and to minimise the requirements to heat up and cool down the internal environment. We firmly believe it is vital to begin with these ‘passive’ design principles.
Innovation
Tenants First leads the way in implementation of Modern Methods of Construction in our sector and are keen to learn from other nations, as we have demonstrated with our pioneering use of Dutch and Canadian systems. We have also worked closely in partnership with a local North East of Scotland supplier on a new ‘closed panel’ timber frame system which promotes increased offsite manufacturing. It is our firm belief that the quality, time, cost and environmental benefits of factory production will be realised when the industry fully embraces such processes. Our commitment to this vision is such that we are undertaking a 3 year Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the Mackintosh School of Architecture to develop the Zero Carbon Affordable Home of the Future and we will involve our construction partners closely in this process.
Wider benefits
We understand that to be truly successful, developing new communities must involve more than streets and buildings. This is why we have a dedicated Community Development team working on ideas for community participation, social enterprise, artworks, member support and outreach work. Such concepts as a community owned Hydro Electric Power scheme, neighbourhood artworks, digital inclusion and employment creation are examples of the wider benefits we aim to promote and deliver along with our new developments.
