We were approached by a local landscape gardener and his young family to envision a sustainable and adaptable self-build home within the Kent Downs National Landscape.
The brief was for a low-impact building to house the client’s family and their landscape business, as part of a wider plan to enhance the existing landscape and increase biodiversity across the man-made hay meadow.
Within the wider meadow, we identified a parcel of land best suited to a new intervention, which minimised local visibility and impact on the established landscape.
Working with the steeply sloping site, our proposal embeds the new building into the natural incline. A single storey in an L-shaped plan provides a generous 4-bedroom family home, with a smaller lower ground floor housing a self-contained office and workshop.
Conceived as a primarily self-build timber construction, the building has contemporary detailing to meet full Passivhaus accreditation, with a focus on high performance building fabric and low operational carbon. Low impact metal screw pile foundations combine with the timber structure to avoid unnecessary use of concrete or steel.
Materials have been carefully selected to respond to existing local characteristics, including horizontal timber weatherboard as the primary external cladding.
This carefully considered green belt proposal creates an adaptable and sustainable home in which our client can continue to grow their family and business locally.
Working in harmony with the existing landscape and topography, the new building will benefit from a wider plan to reintroduce biodiversity and native species across the site.
