MATERIALS


The house was built using a traditional palette of local materials, including yellow ault bricks and weathered timber boarding to the meanine and first oor. The highly insulated and airtight building was designed from the ‘inside out’ to maximise views


UNEXPECTED


FEATURE “Our mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system brings in constant fresh air through ducts, which actually helps us to sleep better.”


of policies with which the building would need to comply. At this point, in May , arah and imon invited several architects experienced with low energy buildings to visit the site and discuss their ideas. “We chose architectural practices who understood the principles of sealed buildings and assivhaus design, and whose websites also showcased interesting buildings – not just blocky ‘passive houses’ with small windows,” explains imon, who trained as a ode For Sustainable Homes assessor, a now discontinued environmental assessment method for rating and certifying the performance of new homes. ur first designer didn’t fully grasp our ideas,” says imon, so in  we began working with prominent architect Jon Broome, who wrote The reen elf-uild ook and is highly experienced in working on assivhaus projects, as well as being a self-builder himself.” Simon and Sarah collaborated over a period of 18 months to build up their design with Jon roome and am rown, his assistant. Featuring an undulating green roof to mimic surrounding fields and reduce the building’s visual impact, reek abin explores the possibility of creating a low impact home for the future while also conserving surrounding ora and fauna. The result is a building which sits within its uniue site with the grace of a living object and is largely constructed with local, natural materials.


may/jun 2024


overing  m


, the layout includes an open


plan upper oor of living, dining, and kitchen space with extensive views in all directions and across the creek. A pop-out pantry and larder have been clad externally in corten steel. elow this is a meanine with a bathroom and two bedrooms  one of which is a bed-sitting room with a balcony  and separate external access. nstead of standing the house on stilts, as originally proposed, on roome suggested infilling this potentially wasted undercroft space to create a ood resilient ground oor to include a snug and livework office. A pneumatic lift for ease of access is expressed externally, with a full-height curved, triple glaed window. Window positions have been located to frame views to the adjacent wetland and woodland, providing different vistas throughout the year, and the building features three raised terraces to maximise views of the surrounding A and provide blended inside/outside living, maximising the modest footprint. uffolk is actually uite enlightened in encouraging modern architecture, and the planners appreciated that the house has a strong design element and convened a design review,” says imon. A panel of architects and other experts visited the site and listened to the case presented by our architect, to assess the proposal. The only real alteration they wanted was to replace the meanine at roof with an


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