Leading sustainable developer Citu has unveiled and now started work on its next sustainable ‘Live-Work’ house, adding to the growing typology of homes at the Climate Innovation District by the River Aire in Hunslet.
Citu Design, Citu’s internal design team, has taken on board valuable lessons they have learnt during working from home in lockdown which has helped to develop and evolve their light and space-led design principles.
With its unique setting, Landing Place is made up of eight, three-bedroom townhouses offering the perfect balance of live-work-play. Each home has the sought-after ‘upside down living’ layout with an open plan kitchen, living and dining area on the top floor boasting fantastic views both up and down the River Aire, and a dedicated but flexible floor plate, perfect for working from home on the ground floor. The layout design will provide the perfect tranquil home office and/or reflection space, a much-needed addition to any modern home.
The innovative design is led by Citu Development Director Jonathan Wilson who already lives on the Climate Innovation District in a prototype house; allowing him to experience and inform all stages of the design process from a homeowner’s perspective. Citu Managing Director Chris Thompson is also a Climate Innovation District resident, proving that the company’s leaders are literally living their dream of a sustainable city centre life that has positive, sustainable, change at its core.
When lockdown happened last March, the whole of Citu’s internal design team transitioned to working from home and found themselves re-designing their own homes to include home office space.
“The entire design team worked form home and we knew straight away the importance of gathering lessons to support improvements on how we design the ‘homes of the future’ with an emphasis on the quality of space, light, views and flexibility.” says Jonathan.
“The lessons learnt from this time have been applied to create an ideal live-work-play solution for those who see themselves making the move to a more agile, working from home and office model in the future.
“Many now will be looking forward to returning to the office and ‘normal life’ as we look to put lockdown behind us this spring and summer, but there will be some people who found working from home advantageous. Those who previously endured long commutes will have the perfect solution at Landing Place, a connected, walkable district in the city centre combined with a flexible home space that maximises their wellness and productivity by offering space to enable a mix of home working alongside some days in the office.”
Another unique aspect to Landing Place is the perpendicular location of the homes that will allow for views both up and down the River Aire. The ground floor has been configured for maximum living space with flexibility built in to offer an ideal working from home room boasting views across a riverside park on the landing of Citu’s new iconic bridge.
Each townhouse will have a private outside terrace off the third floor living area to provide private outdoor space and the double height volume of the top floor living area, thanks to the clever pitched roof design.
This is the first part of Phase 2 of the renowned sustainable development and work has now begun, with the homes expected to be completed in summer and autumn of this year. These are the first homes to be delivered on the South Bank of the district, opening up a new part of the city centre, providing sustainable homes with river views and surrounded by more green space along the emerging green spine running through the 22 acres of regeneration CITU is responsible for.
All the homes benefit from high-speed full fibre broadband, as with all homes at the Climate Innovation District, which further boost their appeal for those looking to work from home. As with all Citu homes they will be built to the highest sustainability credentials and are so efficient that a gas boiler is not required. Instead, they rely on their excellent insulation, an air-tight thermal envelope and a Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation* (MVHR) system that re-cycles heat from household appliances whilst bringing in fresh air. This means they require up to ten times less heating than a typical UK house and the air quality in a Landing Place home will be improved as all incoming air is filtered to remove particulates.
Jonathan added:
“Landing Place homes have a fantastic position within the Climate Innovation District at the heart of this fast-growing community. The homes will meet the growing demand for city centre living and the principles of the ’20-minute neighbourhoods’. The district will deliver over 1000 new homes, bars, restaurants, commercial and plans for a primary school and care home which will ensure residents having access to everything they need for work and leisure on their doorstep.
“The demand for a home/work space was brought sharply into focus during the pandemic as we all had to adopt to a new way of life, Citu were already deep in to designing homes of the future, Landing Place ticks all those boxes and the flexible living space can be adapted so anyone can make it work to suit their own personal circumstances, whether single, couples or families.”
To experience Landing Place ahead of the crowds, potential homeowners can browse through a range of CGIs and floorplans, as well as experience a 3-D tour of the new homes. The tour can be taken here or visit citu.co.uk/find-home
Prices start at £420,000 contact sales@citu.co.uk or call (0113) 320 2357 to arrange for viewing of the Climate Innovation District.
This post is based on a press release issued on behalf of Citu
