From a shortlist of eight projects the new house has been awarded “Best Eco House” in the 2018 Build It awards.

Constructed by MBC Timberframe the house is based on Passivhaus principals of high levels of insulation and air-tightness to drive down energy usage while sensitive detailing of overhangs and deep window reveals ensures that solar gains are controlled to the months when they can contribute to comfortable living in the house and eliminated in summer months to avoid overheating.

Facts & Information

• The UK Property Awards are judged by an independent panel of 80 industry experts. Judging focuses on design, quality, service, innovation, originality, and commitment to sustainability.
• The judging panel is chaired by Lord Caithness, Lord Best, The Earl of Liverpool, and Lord Thurso, members of the House of Lords in the UK Parliament.
• Salice, the world leader in the field of opening systems and fittings, is the 2018 Associate Sponsor of the UK Property Awards and the International Property Awards as a whole.
• Italian based Salice supplies a range of more than 3,000 products to a worldwide network of subsidiaries, sole agents and distributors covering all areas of furniture production. The brand is one of most highly-regarded by small, medium-sized and large companies within the furniture industry serving kitchen and furniture producers in more than 87 countries. salice.com
• The UK Property Awards are the largest, most prestigious, and widely recognised programme throughout the region.
• The official Awards website is propertyawards.net

The IPAX UK & Europe Global exhibition and networking event will be taking place on the 25^th  October at Royal Lancaster, London alongside the European Property Awards, offering an exclusive networking arena for industry professionals. For more information, please visit: https://www.ipaxglobal.com/uk-europe/

The Awards are in their 25^th year and cover over 45 different residential and commercial categories. Regional Awards are staged for Arabia, Europe, Africa, Canada, Central & South America, the Caribbean, USA, UK and Asia Pacific. These will be celebrated at gala presentation events in Bangkok, Dubai, London and Toronto during the course of the year.

• The top winners in each region will automatically be entered in to the overall international awards, culminating in a glittering awards ceremony, held at the Savoy Hotel, London, on 3^rd December 2018.

Winner of an award in the UK regional stage of the International Property Awards 2014-15.

Photographs (c) Matt Chisnall

A naturally sloping site nestled between trees within Farnham’s Area of Special Environmental Quality is always a challenge, particularly when the client wishes to replace an existing house with a highly contemporary design.

For more photographs and floor plans please download the project brochure.

This 3,300sqft design was submitted to Waverley Borough Council in November 2012 and takes advantage of the central plateau of the site. Designed as a sculptural piece within sylvan landscape the proposed replacement dwelling is based on the concept of a ‘broken box’. The client’s aspirations were to take the now “traditional” white render box of contemporary designs and subvert it; pulling the rendered box apart to expose the timber core within. The design takes advantage of the wide frontage offered by the plot and the southerly aspect by placing the main day-to-day living spaces on the south façade, leaving more ancillary spaces to the north façade.

Using the Mantle Panel System SIPs building system which provides a U-value of 0.1 W/msqk and an air-permeability level of 1.0 allows for a highly energy efficient scheme which maximises standard glazing and open plan spaces with minimal need for columns and steel beams.

“Having recently completed our self build,  I have to express my thanks to Leigh of BWP Architects for his input throughout the whole process.

Leigh was not our initial architect, we contacted Leigh once we had decided on a contemporary style property having noted his track record of beautiful homes. Leigh made the whole planning and design process painless, he made everything easy to understand, our expectations were set realistically unlike former contacts and the end result was an outstanding home, which we built on budget and on time, as such I couldn’t have asked for much more.

Peter Worthy – Client, Botany Wood”

Sited within the Greenbelt on the outskirts of Farnham, Surrey this project for a new two storey detached home to replace an existing bungalow needed to overcome Waverley Borough Council’s strict policy RD2A limiting the size of replacement dwellings to just 10% larger than the existing house.

Maximising the potential for extending the existing house under Policy RD2 by 40% over the original property helped secure this scheme.

Construction started in autumn 2016 and the house was fully complete in less than 9 months.

Designed and built using Passivhaus construction principals of controlling air-tightness, limiting thermal bridging and plenty of insulation to drive down energy usage the choice of using MBC Timberframe was a natural one. We have successful worked with MBC on a number of projects now and their ability to guarantee air-tightness levels down at 0.6 air changes per house and insulation levels below 0.1 offers huge benefits. Their ‘passivslab’ raft foundation system avoids the thermal bridging issues where the ground floor meets the external walls.

Externally, the finish will be Norstone Ochre cladding, Dryvit self-colured acrylic render and

timber (heat treated to prevent warping). The interface of these materials with the timber frame solution required careful detailing and our knowledge of the MBS system played a key part in completing the work. Below is an example of one of the 3D details needed to fully explain for the contractors how the external wall fabric goes together.

For more Contemporary New Homes follow this link here.

Many thanks to Matt Chisnall for his photography work as usual.

Many of our projects incorporate the principals of Passivhaus design where a “fabric first” approach to energy savings, coupled with a logical approach to services installation, overall layout, construction detailing, careful consideration of control of solar gains and the integration of renewable technology (without the reliance on it) to provide comfortable homes to live in that are also economical to use.

Although BWP Architects knows it is to be honoured in the UK regional competition, the champagne is on ice until a glittering gala and presentation dinner at the Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square, London, on the evening of Friday, October 24^th when the official announcements will be made and the successful entrants will learn exactly which awards they have secured.

And there could be more success to follow, as later this year the highest scoring winners from the UK Property Awards will compete against other winning companies from Asia Pacific, Africa, Canada, the USA, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Arabia and Europe to find the ultimate World’s Best in each category. These will be announced at the grand final gala presentation dinner dance at the Jumeirah Madinat in Dubai on Thursday, December 4^th, 2014.

The award represents a significant achievement for BWP Architects as entrants are judged against a strict set of criteria and the company was up against a number of high-profile architects in the region. The Award Winners’ logo is recognised as a symbol of excellence throughout the industry.

The Awards judging panel consists of over 70 highly respected experts from all over the world and is chaired by three active members of the House of Lords: Lord Caithness, Lord Best and Lord Courtown.

Stuart Shield, President of the International Property Awards, spoke of his admiration for the award-winning architects, commenting, “The judges and I were overwhelmed by the high standard of architecture in the competition this year. Architects are often unsung heroes in the property industry and many people don’t appreciate the hard work that goes on in the background. Hopefully, our awards can redress the balance.”

Leigh Brooks, Director of BWP Architects, said: “We are thrilled to have been told of the award win. The project wouldn’t have been possible without our clients’ trust and determination to build a highly contemporary home. We’re excited and looking forward to the awards ceremony at the end of October.”