Eco Design Consultants is an award winning chartered architecture practice, that designs beautiful, practical and fun places to live and work. We strive to deliver responsive solutions which have a minimal impact on the environment.
Great Linford
England
MK14 5DZ
United Kingdom
Carrstone House was designed to meet the clients desire for a highly environmentally sustainable life, achieving Passivhaus Plus certification. The living spaces are arranged in an open plan format facing south to use maximum solar gain. The master bedroom and lounge are the most used rooms and so are located to the south maximising the views. A central utility spine separates private and public area within the house, providing a clear design feature. The house optimises high levels of natural light, reducing energy usage and improving wellbeing. Solar panels incorporated into the roof will provide enough energy to completely meet the power and heating need of the home, with excess to run their electric car. This makes the house carbon neutral and energy positive. Efficient water fittings, water butts and sustainable drainage solutions will be included to reduce the usage of water.
Certified to Passivhaus standard this home replaces an old unloved bungalow on the same site. The site is nestled between two bungalows and is near to a conservation area and area of outstanding national beauty. The design for this project required achieving a sensitive balance between the clients space requirements whilst respecting the lower ridge heights of the neighbors and the traditional street scene. This traditionally styled Passivhaus demonstrates that Passivhaus’ can be designed in any architectural style. The flat topped hipped roof sensitively masks the presence of PV’s whilst allowing the home to sit comfortably next to it’s neighbors.
Kinver Passivhaus has been re-designed to meet the client’s desire for a comfortable, environmentally sustainable home, that is future proofed in terms of both climate change and rising energy costs.
The renovation plans have been meticulously detailed to enable the Victorian mid-terrace to achieve full Passivhaus. It is important to the clients that the house remains in-keeping with its neighbours, so selection of materials has be sensitive to their visual impact in addition to thermal performance.
The project has also been featured on the ‘House Planning Help’ podcast – listen here for the clients plans for the renovation and here for some reflections on how the project went and what it’s like to live in.
