Furze Cottage
Currently on site, we have the amazing opportunity to build ourselves a new home and in turn showcase some of our core architectural interests.
In concept it is a simple “black box” but this conceals the surprise of a double height space around which the whole house is organised and brings both generous amounts of light in and from our elevated setting views out over Winchester and beyond.
The front of the house at ground floor conceals the practical aspects of a home, but as you are drawn through the house by the view into the rear garden you are lead into the open plan kitchen / dining / seating area. This double height heart of the house with a feature plywood staircase creates distinctive spaces and views around and through the whole house.
The low energy approach starts with the creation of a highly insulated external fabric helped by the relatively simple building form, but with a focus on avoiding thermal breaks and airtightness, has given us an “excellent” SAP rating. In addition a series of passive and active features from triple glazing, roof overhangs to provide shading, PV panels, underfloor heating and an air source heat pump will create a truly energy efficient house.
Materiality is another key to the design and driven by the use of high quality natural or recyclable materials. Internally we have exposed brick walls, polished concrete floors and plywood ceilings set against the clean white walls. Externally the bold design with its corrugated black metal cladding sits well back in this secluded tree lined site and the house will be softened by the tall silver birches that will replace the overgrown garden we inherited. You are guided in to the house by the timber clad angled ground floor wall that both visually “breaks up” the massing of the house but creates shelter and a discreet entrance.
In addition, we are hoping to showcase that an exciting design doesn’t have to be expensive or take years to happen. From purchase to start on site took us 5 1/2 months – including planning permission, tender process, ecology, bat, tree and archaeology surveys and investigations and currently we are on track for a construction period of less than a year.
