Student Housing and Passsivhaus

There’s been some controversy about the amounts of student housing being provided in Wandsworth; over the past five years, about a thousand student rooms have been completed, under construction or planned. Wandsworth Council has been resisting proposals for new student blocks in Battersea Park Road; and in its current review of the Local Plan, the Council proposes to restrict any new student housing to sites that are not suitable for conventional housing.

The most recent block in Battersea was completed in September last year: a 19-storey complex opposite the Dogs Home. It provides 853 rooms and has been designed to be especially energy efficient, using the sun and internal heat sources to maintain an almost constant temperature and eliminate the need for a conventional heating system. It has now been certified as meeting the Passivhaus standard, making it the UK’s largest passivhaus  building, and the eight largest in the world.