This house is located on the side of a hill overlooking a Lancashire Mill Town. Our client is looking to build an innovative zero carbon house on the site, replacing an existing barn.
There are exceptional views to the north of the site, with the southerly aspect being against the hillside. The conflict between glazing for the views to the north, and glazing for solar gain to the south was resolved by using a semi-circular plan form for the house creating a sheltered south facing courtyard between the house and the hillside.
We worked alongside the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth and their Passivhaus designer to thermally model the building, which allowed us, via calculation, to open up the north elevation with high performance glazing taking advantage of the views.
The building exceeds Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 in its design, and with the addition of a wind turbine it will be a Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6 property.
Low resource reclaimed / recycled materials have been specified throughout, and large parts of the existing barn and hardstanding will be recycled into the new property.
