Sustainable homes with a social purpose

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Bunning Mews is a development of seven Passivhaus-standard, self-contained homes in Aylesbury, designed for Fairhive Homes to provide move-on accommodation for people who have previously experienced rough sleeping.

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The homes provide residents with their own front door, private living space and outdoor area, alongside tailored support to help them develop the skills and confidence needed to move towards more independent living.

For Habitat+, the project demonstrates how good design, sustainability and social impact can work together.

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These are not simply homes that meet a set of environmental targets. They are warm, comfortable and energy-efficient places to live, designed to help keep running costs low and provide residents with a stable foundation for the next stage of their lives.

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The project was delivered through collaboration between Fairhive Homes, Buckinghamshire Council, Homes England and the wider consultant and construction team.

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Making a difference through design

Bunning Mews transforms a previously disused brownfield garage site into a small community of high-quality homes.

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The compact site presented a number of challenges, requiring an efficient approach to the arrangement of the seven homes while maintaining privacy, good daylight and usable external space.

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Each 25m² home provides a bedroom and living space, kitchen and bathroom, together with its own private decked area. Shared facilities include communal laundry, cycle storage and parking.

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Although the homes are compact, the design avoids making them feel institutional or temporary.

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The emphasis is on creating real homes for real life — spaces that provide dignity, comfort and a sense of ownership.

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Passivhaus: comfort and affordability

Energy performance was central to the brief.

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For residents who may already be vulnerable to financial pressures, keeping household energy costs manageable is particularly important. The Passivhaus approach allowed us to address this through the design of the building fabric rather than relying on complex technology or high levels of energy consumption.

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The homes incorporate:

• High levels of insulation

• Triple-glazed windows

• A highly airtight building envelope

• Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR)

• Solar photovoltaic panels

• Careful control of thermal bridging

 

Together, these measures significantly reduce the amount of energy required to heat the homes while maintaining a comfortable and healthy internal environment.

 

MVHR provides a continuous supply of filtered fresh air while recovering heat from outgoing air, helping to maintain good indoor air quality without unnecessary heat loss.

 

The result is housing designed to be comfortable, efficient and affordable to run.

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Prefabrication and timber construction

The homes were delivered using a prefabricated timber-frame construction approach, allowing a high-performance building envelope to be created efficiently on a constrained site.

 

The original concept explored the possibility of using shipping containers as the basis for the accommodation. As the design developed, this evolved into a purpose-designed timber-frame solution that provided greater flexibility while allowing the project to achieve the required levels of comfort, quality and energy performance.

 

Off-site manufacture and prefabrication also helped support the programme and achieve a consistent level of construction quality.

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Designing for independence

The purpose of Bunning Mews extends beyond providing accommodation.

The development gives residents a secure place to call home, while the wider support programme helps them work towards greater independence and, ultimately, more permanent accommodation.

This makes the quality of the environment particularly important.

 

A warm and comfortable home can help provide stability. A private front door and outdoor space can provide dignity and independence. And well-designed shared facilities can create opportunities for support and community without compromising residents' privacy.

 

For us, this is where sustainable architecture has its greatest impact.

Good design can support people.

 

Sustainability can reduce running costs.

 

And high-quality housing can help create a foundation for a more secure future.

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Recognition

 

Bunning Mews has been shortlisted for the Inside Housing Development Awards 2026 in the category Best Supported Housing Development – Rural/Suburban.

 

The project has also been shortlisted for a RICS UK Award 2026, recognising the collaborative effort behind its delivery.

 

We are proud to have worked alongside Fairhive Homes, Buckinghamshire Council, Homes England and the wider project team to deliver a development that demonstrates what supported housing can achieve when social purpose, sustainability and design quality are considered together.

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A different approach to supported housing

Bunning Mews shows that supported housing can be high-quality, low-energy and genuinely people-focused.

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By combining Passivhaus principles, renewable energy, prefabricated construction and thoughtful design, the project provides homes that are designed not just for today, but to perform well over the long term.

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For Habitat+, it is a project that reflects our belief that sustainable architecture should improve people's everyday lives — not simply reduce a building's carbon footprint.