Howdenburn is a 70-home affordable housing development on the former Howdenburn Primary School site in Jedburgh, delivered by Cruden Homes for Scottish Borders Housing Association (SBHA), with Aitken Turnbull Architects. It is SBHA’s largest ever development and part of its programme to deliver 300 new homes across the Borders by 2028. The completed development provides 70 one to four-bedroom homes for social rent.
SmartMist Fire installed water mist fire suppression at Howdenburn. In a social housing development, suppression is required in every home, and the system has to work for the association and its tenants long after the site team has gone.
Project overview
- Development: Howdenburn, former Howdenburn Primary School site, Jedburgh
- Developer: Cruden Homes
- Client: Scottish Borders Housing Association
- Architect: Aitken Turnbull Architects
- Project type: New build affordable housing development of 70 homes for social rent
- SmartMist service: Water mist fire suppression installation
- Sector: Social housing, Scottish Borders
The requirement
Social housing dwellings are named directly in Standard 2.15 of the Scottish building standards, which requires them, along with buildings containing flats or maisonettes and shared multi-occupancy residential buildings, to be designed and constructed so that an automatic fire suppression system inhibits fire growth.
The applicable technical handbook depends on the building warrant date and project type, so each project should be checked against the version of Standard 2.15 that applied when the warrant was submitted or the work started.
That makes Howdenburn different from a private development, where the mandate typically applies only to the apartment buildings. Here, all 70 homes required automatic suppression. Fire suppression was a core part of the build from the start, and the installation had to work at that scale:
- Suppression fitted across every home, house types and sizes alike
- A discreet finish, because social housing residents deserve homes that feel complete
- Scheduling around a phased programme with staged handovers
- A system SBHA can understand, maintain and rely on for decades
Why water mist
Water mist systems suppress fire with fine water droplets that control flames and reduce heat. As the NFPA notes, they achieve this with less water and smaller pipework than standard sprinkler systems.
For a housing association, those characteristics work on two timescales. During the build, smaller pipework routes cleanly through repeated house types and keeps the installation practical across 70 homes. After handover, lower water flow limits the damage if a system ever activates in a tenanted home, which means less disruption for the household and lower repair costs for the association.
The result
SmartMist Fire installed water mist fire suppression across the homes at Howdenburn. The full 70-home development has now been delivered. The installation gave the project:
- Compliant automatic fire suppression meeting Standard 2.15 across the social housing dwellings
- A discreet finish in keeping with modern, energy-efficient family homes
- An installation scheduled around a phased build and handover programme
- Full handover documentation and aftercare support for SBHA and its teams
What housing providers can take from Howdenburn
Demand for these homes tells its own story: more than 350 applications were received for the first 16. Housing associations building at this pace need every part of the programme to run cleanly, and fire suppression touches service routes, ceilings, testing, handover and long-term maintenance. Planning the suppression work in early gave the project team control over design, access and water supply well before each handover, and put working knowledge of the system with the people responsible for the homes.
Howdenburn is also the third development where SmartMist has worked alongside Cruden Homes, following Longthorn Gardens at Shawfair and Longniddry Village in East Lothian. Repeat work across private and social housing reflects an approach that fits how construction programmes actually run.
If you are planning a social housing development, ask three questions early. What does Standard 2.15 require across the homes? Is water mist suitable for the house types? How will installation and handover fit the phased programme?
Planning a development?
If you are planning a social housing development, apartment block or new build housing site in Scotland, SmartMist Fire can advise on water mist systems, installation planning and the best route for your project.
Speak to SmartMist Fire early, before fire suppression becomes a late-stage problem.