Eco-redevelopment for city-centre church: CB1

Thu 14 Oct 2021, 7:00pm – 8:00pm

Breaking from the usual tradition of home tours, this tour focused on a city centre church in Cambridge. It was a fascinating tour, particularly useful for those thinking about redeveloping community buildings as well as the benefits and challenges of working with a group to take opportunities and reach a consensus.

Meet your host, Margaret: Margaret hosted an online tour of Downing Place United Reformed Church (URC) this autumn. Built in 1891, the eco-redevelopment of Downing Place Church was completed earlier this year as a result of a merge of two churches in Cambridge.

The church and halls now have a range of eco-features including solar panels, secondary glazing for the stained-glass windows, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery in the smaller rooms and more. This is is a rare and exciting opportunity to tour one of only a few eco-redevelopments of a church in the UK.

Margaret says: “As a result of this project, ‘sustainability’ has now been welcomed by the congregation – the contractor is now also interested in further eco-retrofit training. We are seeing changes to lifestyles and greater eco-awareness of the whole congregation and wider public as a result of the work.”

Key features of this home:

Ceiling, roof and internal wall insulation.
Double glazing with secondary glazing on stained-glass windows.
External solar screens on rooflights.
MVHR to smaller rooms.
5kW solar PV.
Rainwater harvesting for garden.
Low-embodied carbon materials: Lime plaster, reused timbers in roof, reused wood parquet floor, Warmcel insulation.

Download the full case study here