Today marks #ScottishHousingDay and this year’s focus seeks to raise awareness of the challenges and successes in the housing industry and the housing options available.

Last week, Director Michael Jarvis and our sustainability lead Morgan Stephen took the opportunity to spend the day up in Shetland visiting Hjaltland Housing Association, to gain an insight into how they are tackling sustainability.

As Scotland moves towards it’s 2045 net zero target, new legislation will be introduced in 2024 which prohibits the installation of fossil fuel heating systems in all new homes, meaning all new homes will need to have heating and hot water supplied by electricity. Shetland as an island has no gas infrastructure and the visit was a great opportunity to gain an insight into how this has been put into practice by a housing association who have been developing properties using electricity for heating and hot water for a considerable number of years and tackling the issues this creates.

Hjaltland HA take a fabric first approach to all homes, a design strategy MAST Architects also champion. The homes are designed to be highly insulated and super air tight with limited thermal bridging to minimise the heat loss which in turn reduces energy demand and the tenants fuel costs. Michael and Morgan were lucky enough to be taken around a number of their projects including both new build and retrofit projects on site to see these construction methods in practice. They also gained an insight into their experience in the installation and maintenance of various technologies including high performance storage heating, air source heat pumps and mechanical ventilation and heat recovery, all of which are technologies we will see being used more in homes as legislation changes.

All in all it was a very beneficial trip and Michael and Morgan hope to be able to disseminate the knowledge they gained to the wider MAST team, fellow consultants and clients as we all progress on the journey towards net zero.

A big thank you to Hjaltland Housing Association for hosting us and providing an insight into their projects!

#teamMAST #sustainblehousing #shetland #AlwaysLearning #ScottishHousingDay