Climate Innovation District - CITU

Project Details

Project - Climate Innovation District

Sector - Residential

Technology - Components

Company - CITU

Project Overview

Bold & innovative. We don’t just talk about being sustainable - we live it. Citu’s flagship tenet is simple, we are a purpose led business that exist to tackle climate change. Our overarching approach to the development of better places to live, work and play is fuelled by a focus on the future. Our expertise lies in combining great design, innovation and cutting-edge technology to create modern, aesthetically beautiful homes that make it easy for residents to reduce their carbon footprint and help accelerate the transition to zero-carbon cities. Our vision for creating an exemplar place is bought to fruition in our flagship development The Climate Innovation District, in Leeds.

Spanning over both the North and South bank of the River Aire, once complete the district will comprise will be a mixed used space. Made up of 950 one to four bedroom apartment and houses, workspaces and a multi-generational building which includes a care home and primary school. In the first (now complete) phase of the district on the North Bank of the river there is already a growing community with all of our first properties now occupied - these houses are the first to be built in Leeds City Centre in 100 years.

The South Bank has developed too with 22 houses, ‘The Place’ (home to Citu and Yorkshire Housing) in the heart of the district as well as our in house timber-frame manufacturing facility. The Place offers Yorkshire a zero carbon place to meet, learn and discuss our responsibilities for the future and its climate. The Citu Home has been designed using passiv haus tools and is built in our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility (onsite at the Climate Innovation District) to be so efficient that it requires up to 10 times less heating than a typical UK home and runs on electric heating from 100% renewable sources.

The design of our ‘Citu Home’ product also successfully tackles embodied carbon, as it is built from sustainably sourced timber, a renewable and low carbon construction material. All the timber used is from FSC certified forests which are sustainably managed so as many or more trees are planted then are cut down. Our timber frame panel system delivers ultra- efficient, zero-emission houses and apartments that have heating requirements 10 to 20 times lower than an average UK house. This is due to using wood fibre insulation to both minimise environmental impact and ensure our timber frame panel achieves an incredible level of insulation.