After spending many years looking for the right place for estate agents Build a new homeFraser and Anne Harding came upon their ideal site quite unexpectedly.
“We were out for a walk in Newbury, Berkshire, near where we lived, and saw a plot that had just come on the market,” says Fraser. “It was ideally located on one side of a park, next to a conservation area and on a private road surrounded by trees. As soon as we got home we made an offer, which proved successful.”
The house that stood on the site was a 1960s chalet bungalow built in such a way that renovation was not an option. “It was a probate sale – the house was completely boarded up and lived in from the 1960s to a man well into his nineties,” says Fraser. “From the outset, the building we envisioned was high-spec and eco-friendly, and for many reasons, including the setting of the old building, we could not have achieved that without it. demolish That.”
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Project details
- location Newbury, Berkshire
- project Separate self-build
- The size of the house 247 square meters
- make way The project is managed with separate subcontractors
- Build costs £680,000
- Architects OB Architecture
- photographer Brett Charles Photography
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Finding an Architect
when he came Choosing an architectTo do justice to their vision of a new-build that was “shocking and modern”, the couple decided not to limit themselves to the immediate area, choosing instead to draw up a list of candidates from a wider radius – all of whom they found on the list. RIBA website.
“After whittling it down to a shortlist of three, we met every architect on site, and of those, Grant Freeman of OB Architecture impressed us the most.”
Anne’s story reads: “We had a good idea of the type of house we wanted, and as a visual starting point, we gave Grant a few magazine photos of houses we liked,” she says.
“The main aspect must have been, however, the need for it Eco-friendly home with high Insulation Standards We liked the first set of drawings that came back, and we especially liked the shape and exterior of the house. However, we made some changes internally, such as changing the position of the main staircase and windows.”
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Visual priorities
Since a generous amount of natural light was considered important to the couple, windows were a major consideration. “One of our top needs was to get a lot of light into our kitchen because our last one was quite dark, so the abundance of glazing played a big part in that,” says Fraser.
Equally important was having a great view, and Grant accommodated this by orienting the house to give a clear south-facing outlook. “As the house approaches a conservation areaWe made sure that the part of the house facing the park was a narrow aspect, so as not to be seen as a big ugly block,” says Anne.
Even the mature trees that appealed to the Hardings had their drawbacks. “Fundamentally, one of the biggest challenges was the proximity and impact of the large lime and beech trees, which, without clever engineering and design, would have resulted in an approach to the house away from the main views of the site,” says Grant.
“Tree roots, which were protected by tree preservation orders, took over a lot of the site, so it took some clever design to make it work.”
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Foundation Complications
done protected trees means close foundation Had to approach differently. Helical pile foundation Driven below the main root activity, supports the load on beams placed above ground level, thereby avoiding the need to cut a significant root zone and avoiding soil compaction.
“Since the soil is clay, the piles also had to go down very deep,” says Grant. “All of that meant extra cost, but luckily we knew about this early in the planning process. The use of piles also allowed flexibility around the roots – trial pits were made at each designated location so that if a root was found, the pile could be moved.”
After building began in August 2019, the project was inevitably affected by Covid – a particularly costly period of 10 weeks when the site was idle, during which time fixed costs, such as scaffold hire, still had to be met. Materials arriving from abroad, such as windows from Austria, were subject to long delays.
The weather was not their greatest ally – during a particularly stormy period in autumn the ground floor flooded due to unsealed window voids. “All very inconvenient but nothing we couldn’t cope with,” says a stoic Fraser.
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Mission accomplished
Five years later, the couple is now happily ensconced in a house that, according to Grant, is “very situated within the place, and situated and oriented to work according to its constraints and opportunities.”
Hardings say they are completely satisfied that the brief for an eco-friendly home has been met, in which Fabric-first Fraser says that approach is at the heart of any sustainable construction.
“The thermal properties of the house are actually quite a bit better than that A dysfunctional home We weren’t able to meet its required level of airtightness despite the standard,” says Fraser. “Also, to get certified you need to use specific materials, which comes with a cost premium, which we weren’t willing to pay significantly higher prices for.”
Importantly, Fraser and Annie have a house that is finished Air source heat pump, Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, Solar panels and battery storage, plus smart heating control that offers heat optimization based on factors such as weather and electricity costs.
“While we are not self-sufficient during the winter, we produce more energy during the year than we consume for heat and hot water, and in the summer we export to the national grid,” says Annie. “We even drive electric cars with the power we generate.”
Having built a home for the future, the couple took particular satisfaction in discovering that the untreated larch cladding, which blends perfectly with its surroundings, has transformative benefits. “We often get compliments on it, which is great, especially knowing it won’t need to be replaced for another 40 years,” Fraser says.
If you’re looking for more inspiration, take a look at this Low waste expansion in LondonDesigned with the planet in mind. Or step inside this A glass-box extension in Sheffieldwhich transformed the claustrophobic family home.
