Surface Design Awards – Complete

• HOUSING - EXTERIOR
  Buildings such as houses, flats and apartments that are used for sheltering people. These could be either part of the private or public sector and could be individual dwellings or multi-dwelling developments. Social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing, provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market are included.

Set in an isolated rural location, Cruck Framed House, dating back to 1480, has been painstakingly restored and extended by Flint Architecture with Arrol Architects.

The client has owned the cottage for several generations, but after suffering from neglect and falling into disrepair their vision was to restore and extend the house, creating a modern and spacious, light-filled and energy efficient home, with a strong connection to the surrounding farm landscape. The architects were briefed to create a ‘home for life’; a multi-generational family house to suit the client’s currently busy working lives and anticipated retirement.

The design was conceived as a cluster of buildings in a barn/gabled form that reflect the agricultural heritage of the local area; instead of adding a large extension directly to the existing cottage, the architects created a new wing, entirely separate from the old house, allowing for a separation and distinct architectural language between the old and the new.

The oak cruck-framed cottage was in a poor state of repair having undergone a number of unsuitable 20th Century additions and alterations as well as earlier fire damage. The original medieval timber was badly degraded and partially rotten.

This was painstakingly restored; the 1970’s outbuildings and various unsuitable extensions were removed and modern internal partitions and floor stripped out. This allowed for an opening up of the internal double-volumed space, reinstating the original medieval open-hall layout and revealing the full form of both crucks. Then a meticulous conservation process involved the removal of concrete infills and renders, allowing the building to breathe, and the reinstatement of more appropriate natural breathable materials such as cork, wood fibre insulation and lime plasters.

The new extension connects to the old cottage via a transparent glass link, conceived as a ‘light touch’ and containing the open plan kitchen and living area. This is the architectural focal point of the home, flooded with natural light and allowing the contemporary style and massing of the new wing to act as modern counterpoint to the original cottage. Passing the kitchen leads though to the modern wing, containing a home office, living room and two upstairs bedrooms.

The central design challenge was to achieve this substantial modern extension to the existing cottage, obtain a successful planning approval whilst maintaining an appropriate scale and character, and knitting together the old and new internal spaces into a unified whole. The project received an exceptional planning permission, above what would normally be allowed.

The building has been designed to provide a comfortable internal environment requiring minimal energy input and low maintenance. The form of the building has been laid out with maximum orientation to the south to benefit from natural daylighting and connection to the outdoor surrounding landscape.

For the cottage, existing unsuitable cement based materials were stripped out and replaced with a palette of natural, breathable insulation, lime finishes and breathable paint. The exterior is finished in limewash on lime render over cork insulation screwed directly to the face of the old walls. A new natural welsh slate roof with wood fibre insulation and insulating hemp-lime plaster used internally between rafters allows for maximum vapour permeability to protect the historic fabric. The existing masonry internal walls were repaired and finished with lime plaster and breathable mineral paint. Rotten sections were removed from the existing 600 year old oak frame with new green oak spliced in, using traditional carpentry techniques. The timber was carefully stripped of modern paint and left as a natural finish, with some sections of original wattle and daub left untouched.

The new extension is timber-framed and well insulated, utilising triple-glazed windows and doors, combined with ground-source heating and on-site solar PV to maximise energy efficiency. The new wing is clad in pre-weathered zinc to the walls and roofs, with concealed gutters and downpipes. The cladding to the elevations facing the patio are clad in thermally modified UK grown ash.

The design aims to minimise operational energy through a ‘fabric-first’ approach. A highly insulated envelope with efficient services systems and on-site renewables were implemented. A low-temperature underfloor heating system is installed throughout, heated by a 13 kW ground-source heat pump supported by solar PV (8.39 kW array). This has resulted in a very low energy demand. Over the first user of occupation, the usage has been just 25 kWh / sqm per year.

Secondly, low carbon materials have been specified as far as possible. Particularly on the existing house, natural materials such as wood-fibre insulation, cork and lime plaster and low VOC mineral paints have been specified, and the new wing is a timber-frame construction to minimise the use of masonry.

The project was self-built by the client, with site management by a local contractor during phase 1 (cottage renovation) and by Flint Architecture in Phase 2 (new build extension). Transport and site works have been kept to a minimum by employing local trades as far as practically possible . The core trades, electrician, plumbers, joiners, heritage carpenter and plasterer and labourer are all from the immediate area within a 5 mile radius, minimising distances travelled to work on a daily basis. A local builders merchant provided the majority of the day-to day building materials.

A natural approach to landscaping includes pollinator strips and tree planting, and allows the wild meadow grasses to extend right up to the house. A native mix of wildflower seeds has been sown and this will be carefully maintained over the coming years, avoiding the use of pesticides or any fertilisers, and restoring the area as a natural wildlife habitat, rich in plant and insect biodiversity.

The site has been completely re-landscaped with hard standing and contaminated soil removed. A new permeable gravel driveway is limited to a minimum possible coverage, with small paved outdoor terraces only in key areas. The remainder of the site planted and grassed.
The garden is in the process of being regenerated, with the neglected historic orchard being replanted. Trees have also been replanted to the east of the house .

Bat roosting carefully considered, and access to the existing roof for bat roosting is maintained through access tiles. Bird boxes have been installed on the surrounding trees, with some owl boxes which the client is pleased to report have been occupied in recent months.

Other recent sightings include a barn owl, numerous woodcock and other ground nesting birds, and the client has recently invited an amateur ornithologist group to carry out a survey of birds in the surrounding fields and woodlands.

The project included a number of ambitious and exacting technical design details. Whilst the restoration of the cottage was carried out with a team of highly skilled craftspersons, meeting and overcoming construction challenges as they arose; the design of the new wing required careful pre-planning and full 3D detailing using BIM software (Archicad).

The new wing is intended as a modern counterpoint to the old cottage, with contemporary detailing using durable materials. The roof is clad in zinc, wrapping down the eaves and forming the wall cladding. To achieve a seamless detail and visual simplicity, a bespoke concealed gutter was introduced including concealed downpipes. The eaves was set out to run in a clean horizontal line around the entire building, meeting the soffits of the corner windows without changing level. The eaves are only interrupted by the dormer windows, which also separate the concealed gutter requiring multiple downpipes concealed behind the cladding.

The corner windows required the gables of the timber frame to act as a cantilevering trusses, and with very little deflection permissible this had to be meticulously set-out to ensure that the windows fitted into the openings. The timber frame was fabricated off-site and ordered on a long lead time at the same time as the windows, meaning that the window openings and units had to be pre-ordered to agreed sizes.

The kitchen ‘link’ is glazed on both sides to create the transparent connection between old and new. This required substantial steel beam supports to carry the roof structure and prevent any deflection onto the triple glazed sliding doors. To reduce the impact of the roof edge thickness, the eaves are tapered both in the soffit and roof finish.