Citu unveils plans for £125m Climate Innovation District in Leeds

Citu, the sustainable development company, has unveiled its vision to create a Climate Innovation District in Leeds.

The £125m development, which forms part of the city’s major South Bank Leeds regeneration plans, will incorporate more than 500 new low carbon homes alongside manufacturing, leisure, offices and climate resilient public realm.

With an aim to push towards zero carbon cities, the Climate Innovation District will form a collaboration with local and international partners to deliver a model of how to economically build zero carbon neighbourhoods that also provide healthier, smarter and better connected cities.

A key element of Citu’s Climate Innovation District will be the installation of a new pedestrian bridge across River Aire that will create a link for existing and future residents. The bridge design also will enable delivery of the city’s heat network to the South Bank, providing future resilience of low carbon heating.

Chris Thompson, managing director and founder of Citu, said: “We are hugely excited to be launching what we expect will be a catalyst for the industry to help our cities transition towards being zero carbon.

“This is the biggest challenge of our generation and we need a step change in the way we develop our cities to reduce energy consumption in buildings and transport. We can make this into a viable economic model by using the latest technology and innovation from across the world.

“We have worked with leading Swedish architect, White Arkitekter, to design our neighbourhoods, who have been behind many of the progressive new neighbourhoods in Scandinavia. The Climate Innovation District, and in particular South Bank Leeds, presents an enormous opportunity for Leeds to be the first city in the UK, and possibly Europe, to create an ecologically pioneering district of this scale.”

The homes will be a mix of 1, 2 3 and 4 bedroom ‘family’ houses. Each home will have access to private outdoor space as well as being designed around some innovative public open spaces.

The homes will be timber framed and based on a ‘Citu House’; a product which was developed with Leeds Beckett University with the help of an Innovate UK grant from national government.

The homes will be designed and manufactured in controlled conditions in the nearby Citu Works factory. The completed homes will use substantially less energy than conventional homes and will be connected to smart districts that control and monitor district energy systems around the development.

Citu will be releasing further details about the development in late 2016 with the first residents to occupy homes from early 2017, and final completion by 2022.