selfbuilder Diaries


Self-building architect Philip Newbold looks back a decade to the battle he successfully fought to build the first passie house in County Durham with an A-rated EPC, and how it has served him and his wife since


T


he journey of Greendale Cottage began over 10 years ago. When the 2008 crash left me redundant after 35 years in architecture, I became self-employed and trained as a Certified Passivhaus Consultant in 2010. Having lived in a succession of leaky homes, my wife Joy and I wanted to find a comfortable and sustainable home. oweer, as we couldnt find anything suitable on the market, we set about finding a plot and building our own place.


In 2011, we stumbled upon a 350 m2 plot in Upper Weardale that we believed had detailed planning consent. But we soon discovered that the consent had expired in 2009, which led to various complications. The vendor had to reapply for planning but was refused due to changes in the council’s environmental policies. Even though the foundations for the house were already cast, the vendor had to employ a planning consultant to renew the planning consent with 15 conditions. Despite these issues, we secured ownership of the land in January 2012 for £70k.


PLANNING


The village of Upper Weardale sits within a conservation area and an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) on the River Wear. When I opened discussions with planning on their 15 conditions, I found the planners to be etremely ineible, and not really interested in my aspirations to build a


low-energy Passivhaus. The Conservation Planning Officer in particular was not interested in the Government’s energy conservation agenda at all, only conservation of the local vernacular building style. The planners also insisted on retaining the L-shaped oor plan of the original planning consent with local stone walls, chimney stacks, natural slate roof and sliding sash windows. Thanks to these draconian planning


restrictions, out went any hope of being able to build a certified Passihaus.


THE BUILD


The house was a two-storey, three- bedroomed detached house of 116 m2 with an additional attic plant room and store of 46 m2


. There is a small yard with outbuildings at the rear and a


south-facing cottage garden and patio at the front. There was an existing stone double garage on the site with a at, tin roof which served as our site cabin during the build. n arch , work finally commenced on the construction of Greendale Cottage, where we moved into a tiny rented cottage next door to the plot in April 2012. Acting as the designer, project manager, buyer, site foreman, clerk of works, and even labourer, I found myself perpetually exhausted. Thankfully local sub- contractors joined our team, contributing expertise in stonemasonry, joinery, plumbing, electricity, and roofing. The journey was not without challenges. The weather seemed to conspire against us, with incessant rain


“It was the wettest summer in a century followed by the coldest winter in half a century!” – Philip 8 www.sbhonline.co.uk


jul/aug 2023


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