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Urbanest Battersea: Providing high-quality, energy efficient accommodation for 853 students

Henriksen Studio
Sep 16, 2025
1 min read

Updated: Oct 28, 2025

Urbanest Battersea: Providing high-quality, energy efficient accommodation

for 853 students Dr Thomas Henriksen, was delighted to join Urbanest and design-team colleagues AHMM and Mace at Footprint+ on 15th May 2025 to share insights on Urbanest Battersea.

Urbanest Battersea is currently the largest student living building designed to

Passivhaus standards in Europe, the largest Passivhaus building in the UK, and the

eighth largest in the world. Providing high-quality, energy efficient accommodation for

853 students it represents a significant achievement for client, design team, and

contractor.

Passivhaus principles can lead to lower operational costs and improved comfort for

the student occupiers. Despite slightly higher capital costs, building operators in

PBSA and BTR may be able to offset these costs through intelligent design.

Having received certification this February, the building has yet to be in operation a

full year, but there have been significant learnings to share:

how to reduce heating and cooling demand through the design of the building.
how the scheme is reliant on the behaviours of occupants and how Urbanest
is working to educate its customers.
what the team have learnt through the process of mobilising and operating the
building that wasn’t anticipated.

We’re pleased to share a podcast of the panel discussion published by Footprint+

available online via Urbanest: Passivhaus Student Living | FOOTPRINT+ podcasts

where you will hear from the following panel members:

Panel Members: