In a large rural site with some existing old barns, the brief of the client was to create an exemplar building. It was decided to develop a concept of a Hi-Tec Barn with the same footprint of the amalgamate of existing structures, half buried in the land helping the house to blend in its own landscape.
Although in a rural and agricultural context, this would be an outstanding energy efficiency building performing at the highest level, setting a new standard of design in the surrounding area. The building is a mix of timber agriculturally inspired cladding, rammed earth feature walls, copper details and glass.
The design elevated the timber cladding structure as a statement in the landscape, but the largest part of the building is built into the ground in order to minimise the impact of the house on the site.
This also forms a key part of the energy strategy as the earth provides a thermal mass helping to maintain constant temperatures and minimise energy use. This lower section of the building has walls made of rammed earth.
In order to achieve a zero carbon and PassivHaus compliant building, the house uses solar panels and a biomass boiler, making use of the set of fasting growing willow trees at the entrance of the site.
