A housebuilder that specialises in regenerative ‘planet positive’ housing has won a coveted RIBA award for a carbon negative development in Walthamstow Village, London.
The Arbour, as the development is known, is a collection of 10 homes that caught the judges’ eye with their “unique and beautiful” design, but it wasn’t just the aesthetics that helped developer GS8 score a 2024 RIBA National Award.
The homes are also said to be fully carbon negative, are self-sufficing in energy, and are able to be deconstructed at the end of their life span. Furthermore, zero skips were used on site and all non-contaminated waste was recycled and re-used.
In winning the award for The Arbour, GGS8 became the only developer to have won an award for a newly built residential scheme available for sale through the open market.
RIBA’s judges said: “With their exemplar 10-house, carbon-negative development on a former industrial site, [architects] Boehm Lynas and GS8 prove homes made from ‘waste’ and bio-based materials can be beautiful, and win.”
Josh Gordon, co-founder of GS8, said: “The way we build new homes in this country has to change and we want to play a leading part in the sector’s progression towards, or beyond, net zero.
“The Arbour is the embodiment of what the future should look like – homes that deliver zero energy bills and are regenerative and community-led. This award provides affirmation that it is possible to build planet positive homes, which are viable, aesthetically and architecturally attractive.”
Out of the 26 National award winners, just four were housebuilders or housing associations, with GS8’s scheme the only newly built, open market sale residential scheme to win.
Other winners included multi-billion-pound regeneration projects, such as the King’s Cross Masterplan, the Elizabeth Line, the Battersea Power Station regeneration and Paddington Station, and leading institutions, such as the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Academy of Dance.
The Arbour has also won a Regional RIBA London Award and the RIBA London Sustainability Award.
Founded by Josh Gordon and Ben Spencer, GS8 focuses on regenerative housing developments which are ‘planet positive’. This means, all non-contaminated waste on site is recycled and reused, and the carbon stored in the homes exceeds the embodied carbon needed to build and maintain them.
The renewable energy generated on-site is said to exceed the annual energy consumption of the homes themselves, guaranteeing zero energy bills, in partnership with Octopus Energy.
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