By STEWART McINTOSH

RAVENSCRAIG is to be the location for a groundbreaking innovation park which will showcase the latest ideas in sustainable housing.

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) and Ravenscraig Ltd, the company driving the regeneration of the former steelworks site, will establish the park which will channel over £2 million of new technology investment. The aim is to build on the lessons learned by BRE’s first demonstrator centre at Garston near Watford, which pioneered the use of wind turbines, rainwater harvesting, heat recovery systems and recycled waste timber within individual homes.

BRE Scotland will create full-scale demonstrator houses at Ravenscraig, seeking to point the way towards how houses of the future will tackle issues such as affordability, energy efficiency, recycled materials, carbon emissions and sustainable methods of construction.

The technologies showcased at BRE’s Garston innovation park are starting to inform how new homes in England and Wales are constructed and it is hoped those created at Ravenscraig will help steer planning and development policy in Scotland.

It is anticipated construction of the Innovation Park at Ravenscraig will commence in 2009 and will be completed during 2010.

Jim Fitzsimons, director of Ravenscraig Ltd, said: “We want Ravenscraig to be a showcase of health, wealth and vitality, where cutting-edge design and technology in our buildings will promote a sense of wellbeing in the people who will live and work there.

“The aims of BRE Scotland are very similar to our own and it is a tremendous endorsement of our ambitions for this development that they have

BRE (whose Scottish HQ is pictured) is joining up with the developer

chosen Ravenscraig as the location for their Scottish innovation park.

Ravenscraig is one of the most ambitious regeneration projects ever seen in Scotland and one of the largest in Europe. Once completed, it will be home to over 10,000 people,is expected to create 12,000 jobs and to attract more than £1.2 billion of private sector investment over the next two decades.

Rufus Logan, director of BRE Scotland, said: “We see this as a constantly-evolving project which will highlight the innovative work already going on in the Scottish construction industry and will challenge companies to develop new solutions to issues the sector will face in the not-too-distant future.”

“Ravenscraig is the ideal location for our first innovation park in Scotland – its position at the very heart of the country and the ambitious, forward-looking plans for the site mean there is a real synergy between Ravenscraig and BRE Scotland.”

Work is already well under way on the £200 million first phase of the redevelopment of the 1,100 acre site, with a £30 million regional sports facility, a £70 million campus for Motherwell College and 850 new houses now under construction.

Plans have also just been unveiled for the £600 million second phase of the development, which will create a new 1 million sq ft town centre.