The Concept.
We wanted to build our own home in the village that we have grown up in...
The site we have doesn't make things straightforward ! It is a sloping site, more or less south facing, on the perimeter of our village with open views to the countryside.
We gave our architect the following information to design our house for us.....
- Freedom to come up with any design that would suit the site (in his opinion)
- Should look like a modern bungalow from the village side (North Side)
- Freedom of design for the south side
- Spacious / Open plan design with a bright feeling to it
- Energy Efficient - do our bit for the environment - topical I know!
- Garage should be at road level to maximise garden space rather than lose it all to driveway. All other houses built in the area have chosen to build a garage underneath the house itself and have long sweeping driveways.
So....here is the design...view from village roadside (North) has the minimum of windows and doors to retain the solar gain made within the building. A suspended driveway to keep cars up the top of the site and give us maximum garden space. Also note the upside down roof ! This is to give us the feature glazing on the south side and to allow for minimum loss of the view for our neighbours behind us.
Then from the south side....
Lots of glass to maximise solar gain ! The roof will be in metal and of a butterfly wing type design to maximise the windows to the front with almost 4 metres of glass in the living room, dining room and kitchen! Main construction is in timber to keep structure lightweight, with render to the north side to fit in with existing buildings.
Lots of glass to maximise solar gain ! The roof will be in metal and of a butterfly wing type design to maximise the windows to the front with almost 4 metres of glass in the living room, dining room and kitchen! Main construction is in timber to keep structure lightweight, with render to the north side to fit in with existing buildings.