We were delighted to see Architecture Vogue Magazine run an article on quickSAP for Home Energy Modelling, the new plugin for Sketchup that we’ve created to allow architects and designers to run energy use calculations directly in Sketchup and to test design ideas for energy efficiency as well as producing detailed results for use in Energy Statements with indicative CO2 emissions, SAP and EPC Ratings.

Head over to www.quicksap.com to see more details and to download a free 14 day trial now!

Best Architecture Single Residence EUROPE Award Winner 2024-2025

Best Architecture Single Residence UK Award Winner 2024-2025

Best Architecture Single Residence Surrey Award Winner 2024-2025

Sited on the brow of rolling hills overlooking a valley on the edge of the Surrey Hills Natural Landscape with a backdrop of mature woodland, the concave curved plan provides different views from the principal spaces along the southern elevation while the curved circulation spaces offer tantalising glimpses between rooms. Spine walls, following straight radii lines from a common centre point, divide the curved walls to create and define the spaces.

The curved plan is also echoed in the split curved roof mixing barrel vaults and S-spline roof forms with an interlinking flat roof entrance hall and the curving roof forms express the rolling nature of the surrounding Surrey Hills. Internally, the curved glu-lam beams forming the barrel vault roofs are visible in the ceilings to the main reception spaces and principal bedroom suite. These main spaces are positioned on the southern side of the building, leaving circulation spaces and ancillary utility spaces to the north, to take advantage of the views over the rolling hills and valley below. In order to ensure overheating isn’t an issue, solar control triple glazing to the southern elevation is combined with the deep overhanging roofs to the ground floor spaces which also creates outdoor covered dining spaces.

The curved floor plan, with radii varying from 25m to 38m, created interesting construction issues not just in terms of setting out but also curved steelwork, curving plasterboard to follow the faceted blockwork walls, steel spine staircases following the radii of curved walls, setting straight windows in curved walls etc. For the zinc standing seam roof, each panel tapers in plan to take up the curve while also bending to follow the roof profile; curving in three dimensions for the S-spline roof section as well. The attention to detail required to produce such a high-quality and unusual build tested all the contractors on site but the end result speaks for itself and the client, and we, are delighted with the finished home.

Externally, the paved terrace is carefully set out to pick up on the spine walls in straight lines with diagonal paving between to take up the curved plan. The overhanging roofs are supported on a series of timber and steel posts, aligned with the internal spine walls and reminiscent of the curving colonnades of Classical antiquity such as Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli. The internal spine walls are further expressed externally with low stone clad walls extending beyond the line of the terrace to divide the private terraces from the bedroom wing with the outdoor entertainment areas leading down to the outdoor kitchen, swimming pool with its retractable enclosure and attached gym, games room and changing facilities.

The soft palette of external materials and colours was carefully chosen to represent the tones of the woodland behind and the sandy soils of the local area. Ecoscape composite recycled timber cladding, Norstone stone cladding, VM Zinc roofing and aluminium powder coated rainwater goods and self-coloured soffit and fascia boards minimise future maintenance.

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Thank you to Matt Chisnall for his photography work again

Due to the vagaries of East Hampshire District Council’s planing policy, a number of applications had to be submitted to extend the existing cottage (on paper at least) to form a realistic “fall-back” position where the existing cottage could be significantly increased in size above what would normally be permitted for a replacement dwelling. With these extension permissions secured, a planning application could then be submitted for the new house.

The client’s initial brief was for the new home to have the simple built-form, reminiscent of traditional gable-end and rectangular agricultural barn structures with lower eaves, but with a contemporary aesthetic overall externally and internally. Materials were to be a mix of simple timber cladding and stonework with slate and standing seam metal roofing. The finalised design is for a U-shaped building creating a sheltered courtyard to the rear, looking out over the sloping site and woodland beyond. The wings of the U-shape are single storey and contain the main living space and principal bedroom; both of which are vaulted to give large windows and to take advantage of the simple construction nature of a SIPs build. The building form is expressed on the ends of the two storey and single storey wings with aluminium clad panels from ground level and over the edges of the roof. The single storey elements are stone clad with a zinc standing seam roof, the two storey front section of the bulding is timber clad with slate roof.

The ground floor contains the principal bedroom, ensuite and dressing room, study, laundry / utility room (complete with dog-shower…), and the open plan kitchen, dining and reception room. A fourth bedroom with ensuite completes the ground floor accommodation. The vaulted entrance hall, with sunked spiral wine-store as a focus and talking point in the centre of the space, leads up to a bridge link between the two first-floor bedrooms and bathrooms. The gable ends of the first-floor bedrooms are completed wih re-entrant balconies, set back from the end of the bulding to give privacy and shading to the glazing.

Large glazed openings facing south-west would normally be a concern with their potential for creating internal overheating; the lack of a cantilevered roof structure prevents deep eaves shading the windows. However, in keeping with the agricultural barn appearance, large sliding timber panels have ben designed and included that can be used to close off each of the south-west facing windows in summer on particularly hot days; with the sliding screens closed the doors behind can be opened to maintain a refreshing cross breeze through the building.

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SIPs Contractor was Bentley Projects

We were appointed by the client to redesign a previous house on the site that did not meet their size or architectural requirements. The overall site was part of a larger property that was to be demolished to make way for this new home on half the site with the other half sold off to developers to pay for the construction of their own home.

The heavy stucco porch with rusticated shallow arch contrasts with the softer stock brickwork of the main elevations complete with brick pilasters with stone capitals and stone surrounds to feature windows.

Planning Permission was granted in 2020 following an appeal for this new 4,650sqft (432sqm) home designed to reflect the vernacular architecture of the nearby homes. The house sits behind a dense screen of Tree Preservation Order protected planting and includes steep roofs, gable ends, timber lintels, roughcast render, clay tiles roofs and tall, decorative chimney stack. Stepped quoins to the front gable elevation, brick slip details in the apex of the gable roofs, black window cills, black painted timber bracketed window hoods and black fascias against white soffits all add to the high quality attention to detail coupled with the carefully thought through proportions to the elevations and room sizes.

The house is highly energy efficient with an EPC Rating of A (93) acheived by the use of a well-insulated timber frame, air-source heat pump, underfloor heating, whole house mechanical ventilation incorporating heat recovery and solar panels with a battery back-up system and immersion heater booster for when the batteries are full. The house also includes a 22kW fast electric car charger to take full advantage of the solar panels.

The property has a traditional yet contemporary feel, designed and built to offer classically proportioned
rooms, with a layout perfectly designed for modern family living with neutral crisp interiors. The house is laid out around a spacious double height entrance hall and galleried staircase. Contemporary dark stained oak floors throughout the ground floor are laid over undefloor heating. The dual-aspect formal drawing room, with a central elegant fireplace, sits at the front of the house with a home office to the othersdie of the entrance hall. A large open-plan family living space, dining room and kitchen sit behind the entrance hall and lead through two sets of double doors open to the garden and a second pair of double doors open to a dual-aspect family room.

The kitchen is fitted with bespoke handmade and painted elegant white shaker style cabinetry designed by Charles Yorke and quartz marble worktops and features a large island with breakfast bar seating, which is a perfect spot for a morning coffee, every day dining or for entertaining guests with whilst cooking.

The first and second floor accommodates six bedrooms with the principal bedroom featuring a dressing area and ensuite bathroom.

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You can download it by clicking this link here.

Once validated, the application will then be assigned to a Case Officer and your 8 weeks (ahem…) timetable for a decision begins. However, failure to provide the necessary information will delay the validation of the application and the submission will not go anywhere until the missing documents, detail, crossed ‘T’ or dotted ‘i’ are provided.

Enjoy reading through it over the Christmas break everyone!

The site, while a simple rectangle on plan, slopes down considerably from the road level and the new design takes advantage of this to step down from the front of the house (entrance hall, reception and utility room) to the rear of the house to give the open plan kitchen / dining room and adjacent TV room / snug a more generous ceiling height.

Designed using traditional double pitched roof form the dark timber cladding and crisp white render are complemented with dark bronze coloured window frames, rainwater goods and fascias.

The symetrical roof has been created as the road itself south to north and the lowered eaves to the north ensure that from the neighbour’s view the replacement house has no impact on theie view of skyor created an unacceptable loss of daylight. A detailed Daylight Impact Assessment was carried out using 3D modelling software to create Waldram Diagrams and to ensure that the Visible Sky Component and Annual Probable Sunlight Hours remained above the BRE recommended impact limits.

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In 2015 we completed a new home set within a different part of the same woodland site for a private client who then discovered the love of building. Having project managed the build of their first house the client then decided to embark on building a second house further down their large plot.

Whereas their first project was unashamedly modern in style this project has a more traditional style to it albeit it with a contemporary twist.

The linear plan form is exaggerated by the low pitched roof with wide overhanging eaves, high level string course separating the rendered ground floor from the timber clad first floor. This timber string course continues around the whole building and delineates the windows sills to the upper floor while the choice of vertical timber cladding sets a rhythm and echoes the vertical pine tress around the site.

The rear balcony off the Principal Bedroom forms a canopy over the large south facing ground floor reception room windows and is supported on stone piers; the same stone used on the front porch and the ground floor of the neighbouring first house for the client.

Built using solid 215mm blockwork with external insulation and render the house benefits from a high thermal mass internally while the external insulation ensures a consistent wrapping of the structure and avoids thermal bridging. The overhanging roof eaves also provide passive solar control to the upper floor windows.

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The existing single storey bungalow with shallow pitched roof was to be replaced with a new predominantly two storey home. To the rear, the open plan kitchen dining family room areas sit half a level up from the ground floor to take advantage of the natural levels across the site.

Designed to be built using a well-insulated and lightweight timber frame the overhanging roofs to the south and west elevations provide natural passive solar controls. Whole House Mechanical Ventilation coupled with ground source heat pumps ensured that the scheme surpassed the requirements of Building Regulations for energy efficiency. Detailed 3D modelling and assessments of the roof overhangs were carried out with annual sun-hour calculations to the large areas of glazing checked using the geosynchronised 3D model.

The flat roof design ensured that the overall height of the new building was only 0.5m higher than the ridge line of the existing house and the L-shaped plan allowed the frontage of the existing buildings to be reduced from 25m to 17m for the replacement building; all of which ensured that the planners agreed that the proposals would not appear more intrusive in the AONB landscape.

The flat roofs are covered with Badum’s XF301 lightweight sedum roofing blanket to increase biodiversity on the site and compensate for the larger footprint of the new building. External lighting is kept below the roof and first floor overhangs or are cowelled to ensure downlight cast light only as the site sits within a Dark Skies protected area; the use of warm white 3,000k LED lights providing no more than 7.6 lux meets the requirements of the Bat Conservation Trust’s guidance on external lighting.

For more examples of our designs for contemporary new homes click here.