Barratt Greenhouse

The ‘Barratt Green House', voted the winning design in 'The Mail on Sunday British Homes Awards’ 2007 competition for the 'Home for the Future' designed by Gaunt Francis Architects and built by Barratt Developments, is located at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) Innovation Park in Watford.

The automatic shutters not only provide a distinctive and attractive external feature they also play a crucial part in the technical design. They are linked to a central computerized building management system that automatically opens and closes the individual shutters to optimize solar gain and minimize solar overheating. For convenience, occupants will also be able to manually over-ride the automatic function of each shutter. The high quality shutter mechanism is manufactured in Switzerland by one of the world leaders in sliding technology Hawa AG. The Hawa Control –PRO controller system is also compatible with central building control systems (bus systems) with in-built safety back off / stop facility, and is CE tested.

Gary King, Häfele Architectural Product Manager said : “Barratt will now test this home for the next two years and plan to apply the most successful aspects of the design to future homes, which we hope will include sliding shutters”