Scotland' Housing Expo

An exhibition of the UK’s first sustainable housing expo, which will open in Inverness this weekend, is on display at the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Inverness from 23rd July to 31st August.

A series of scale models will demonstrate the layout of the housing expo, including over 50 cutting edge sustainable homes and the surrounding pathways, roads, trees, social spaces and community areas.

Based on an established model found in Finland and mainland Europe, the Expo is set to put Scotland and the Highlands firmly on the map as a leader in sustainable living and provide a vision for the next generation of Scottish housing. 40% of the Expo homes will be affordable, with the remaining 60% available for sale on the open market.

Fully supported by the Scottish Government, Highland Council and a consortium of agencies, Scotland’s Housing Expo is a result of an architectural competition which selected the teams who have designed these innovative homes. The Expo houses and their contents will form a platform for showcasing the wealth of Highland and Scottish design talent, including interior and product design. The initiative also provides a ‘test bed’ for construction and technological innovation, which will inform Scottish house building in the future. The houses will inspire developers to learn new skills and source fresh ideas to incorporate into future designs, while demonstrating how new building standards can be met on energy efficiency and carbon reduction.

The Expo will be held on a site at Milton of Leys, south east of Inverness, just off the A9. When it ends, the houses will be available to buy or rent and it will become a living community.

With support from the SUST Sustainability in Architecture Programme which was launched in 2002, to raise public awareness and understanding of the role of sustainable design in creating better places, the exhibition has toured across the country before coming back to Inverness ahead of the Expo this weekend.