Our client, who already lived in the village, runs a charity helping under-privileged young people within the local area and was looking to combine the need to downsize his own home and combine this with a permanent base for the charity.

Working with a large piece of land already within their ownership, a design concept was developed that would re-wild the site, re-introducing lost habitats and woodland species whilst creating a series of dry-stone wall ‘spines’ which traversed the site, giving the structure, from which the new dwelling and the charity base could be formed.

A low profile Passivhaus concept was developed, using the contours of the site to create ground source heating and cooling for the dwelling, deep overhanging eaves for summer shading and reed beds for grey water re-cycling.