CASE STUDY


CURVES IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES


Not only have Roger and Lucy Southcott achieved their ambition of building a home that’s energy self-sufficient with super-low greenhouse gas emissions, they’ve also created something that’s carefully shaped to fit the contours of its Wiltshire location


TEXT JESS UNWIN IMAGES GREEN BUILDING STORE I


n one sense, Roger and Lucy Southcott’s self-build could be seen as an opportunity for them to practise what they preach. After all, he works in sustainable housing development, while she’s an environmental consultant. It should be no surprise therefore that this project represents the realisation of a long-held ambition to build something for themselves that is self-sufficient in terms of its energy needs, and offers super-low greenhouse gas emissions. But of course it’s also an exciting new chapter in Roger and Lucy’s lives – one where they’ve swapped life in a Victorian mid-terrace property in London’s Bermondsey district for a unique and very 21st century home in Wiltshire with views of Salisbury Plain.


18 www.sbhonline.co.uk


Says Roger: “I was getting tired of living in London – it can be aggressive, dirty and noisy. We wanted to try to deliver on what we both believe in terms of sustainability, but we also wanted things like more space to live in, a kitchen garden and a semi-rural location.”


“We wanted to try to deliver on what we both believe in terms of sustainability”


LOW POINT


“The legal dispute with the timber frame company – everything stopped for two months. The cost of the frame was £30,000 so there was a lot a stake.” – Roger Southcott


january 2020


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