The official opening of AMRO Partners’ flagship co-living scheme, The Rex, marks a major step forward for sustainable urban living in the UK. As the first co-living development in the country to achieve BREEAM Outstanding, The Rex sets a powerful benchmark, one built on design excellence, retrofit-first thinking, and a deep commitment to measurable environmental performance. A key part of that success lies in the building’s digital backbone: Prefect Controls’ Irus ecoSystem.
Installed throughout 212 apartments and shared spaces, Irus provides integrated monitoring, but more importantly, control of the building’s core utilities. In individual rooms, the system delivers precise heating control, ensuring heat is only delivered when required. This alone contributes significantly to lowering operational energy use, one of the most challenging aspects of achieving higher BREEAM ratings.
However, the Irus deployment at The Rex goes far beyond heating. The system also provides real-time metering of electricity consumption, and both hot and cold-water usage in every room. This unprecedented level of visibility gives AMRO’s data team access to a rich, building-wide dataset that enables continuous performance analysis, early identification of anomalies, and a clear understanding of resident energy behaviour while ensuring compliance with all GDPR requirements.
In addition to controlling the heat source, the control units feed data to the central control portal for humidity, CO2, light, sound, occupancy levels, and of course temperature.
This comprehensive monitoring is essential for achieving high sustainability ratings. It provides AMRO’s team with building-wide insight into building services performance, enabling proactive optimisation and ensuring the building operates as efficiently in practice as it was designed to on paper.
Automatic control fundamentally changes how buildings are managed. Regular manual checks, room-by-room inspections, plant room walk-arounds, or monitoring hard-to-reach locations, are replaced with real-time digital oversight. Enabling technical teams to focus their time on strategic, higher-value tasks.
“We are incredibly proud that IRUS not only features within The Rex but was instrumental in helping the development reach BREEAM Outstanding. By giving operators real-time intelligence across every room, IRUS turns sustainability ambition into measurable performance, and The Rex is a perfect example of what can be achieved when technology and design work hand in hand.”
Will Mills, Managing Director at Prefect Controls
UtilityMeter, a module within the Irus ecosystem, helps to achieve up to 5 BREEAM credits when used as part of the building’s energy and water monitoring system. The portal can also link with third-party meters, allowing it to collect and display usage data.
- Credits 1–2 (Ene 03) are gained by installing electricity sub-meters. These are usually fitted for each flat in the development, so energy is monitored on an individual basis.
- Credit 3 (Wat 02) is gained by installing a water meter on the building’s main incoming water supply, or additional meters for different blocks or floors, to track water consumption.
- Credits 4–5 (Wat 03) are gained by using water meters with the Irus portal’s ‘LeakDetect’ module. The system identifies flow patterns that may indicate leaks or wasted water. Automated isolation of supply and detection of continuous flow/abnormal consumption, not only save on utility cost, but also potential damage and reparation costs from escape of water.
With its retrofit-first approach, retained structure, generous community amenities, and now award-winning sustainability credentials, The Rex represents the future of low-carbon, community-led living. Irus plays a decisive role in that future by ensuring the building continues to operate efficiently, transparently, and responsibly.
In combination, design, engineering, and digital intelligence have created not just a place to live, but a new benchmark for sustainable co-living in the UK.
