Work underway on Gloucestershire sustainable housing development

Work has started on a development of 88 sustainable homes on the edge of a Gloucestershire village.The homes, at Orchard Field in Siddington, near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, have been designed by housebuilder Stonewood Partnership to be as low energy as possible.The Tormarton and Castle-Combe-based company is developing the environmentally friendly community as joint venture with retired architect Nicholas Arbuthnott, whose vision inspired the scheme.The new homes have been designed by architects’ practice Stonewood Design, with input from environmental engineering company Greengauge Building Energy Consultants.Each Cotswold stone or red brick home will have solar panels embedded into the roof, 45cm thick walls filled with eco-friendly insulation, triple glazing and airtight interiors.Arbuthnott, who secured an option on the site close to Siddington C of E School and was given outline permission on appeal in June 2017, said: “We call it a fabric-first approach – which means if you get the building right in the first place you make it energy efficient.