Home for the Future

The brief called for an eco-sensitive mainstream house type that would be buildable and repeatable. It had to be a minimum 3 bedroom, maximum four storey detached, semi or terraced house with or without integral garage.

The building had to be innovative and carbon neutral using sustainable products. There needed to be construction affordability, ease of maintenance and flexibility for changing lifestyle needs.

The house builders dilemma is that available and acceptable sites for house building are not necessarily simple or suited for mass production of the above ideal house. Flexibility is required to deal with corners, slopes, landscape, shape, orientation, mix of house types, plot size, economy of scale, variety of units, local vernacular and overlooking to name a few.

The solution was to produce a standard adaptable model that would not only be applicable to one off sites with ideal orientation, but is a prototype for construction on a large scale, to high density in line with targets for increasing the UK housing stock.

The solution is adaptable for N/S, S/N, W/E and E/W orientations with all formats gaining good exposure to sunlight and daylight.

The plan allows for detached, semi detached and terraced use. It is designed in 2, 3 and 4 bed options. It adapts to accommodate slopes, curves or staggered streetscapes. It can provide a variety of elevations and plan types within the generic model. It can also integrate workspace units and can be used in urban, suburban or rural sites. It can be made with a carbon neutral footprint through airtightness, super insulation, wind turbines, p.w. panels, triple glazing, bio fuel boilers and solar panels. Its sustainable construction will have easily read meters, waste recycling measures, the use of recycled materials and materials from sustainable sources and low flush W.Cs and low energy rated fittings.

We can incorporate sedum roofs, wind driven ventilation and heat recovery, rainwater and grey water recycling and ground source heat pumps.

Currently we have 2 estates where the layout is being based on this prototype and we look forward to developing it further.