Carbon Neutral House #4

Carbon Neutral House #4 in the Surrey Hills.
The four bedroom family home is set within 4 acres of the Surrey Hill’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with far reaching views across the South Downs. The house and swimming pool are heated with a 28kw ground source heat pump system and the building has a 22kw rooftop photovoltaic array with battery storage. With an EPC energy rating of A, scoring 120 points, the building is insulated beyond Part L of the building regulations by around 20%. Through exporting energy the house has the ability to remove up to 10 tonnes of carbon a year from the national grid’s supply. The timber and stone clad building has sedum roofs, bird and bat boxes and the landscape works include the creation of two new ponds, the planting of dozens of new trees and around 2 acres of wildflower meadow.

What the clients says:
'Building your own home is undoubtedly a great privilege, yet is full of numerous hurdles and many, many decisions. The architect/house-owner relationship is particularly important and can make the difference between a good house and a great one. We dreamt of building a house that was timeless and beautiful. But more important than this was that we wanted it to be a genuine home – definitely not a show home – that we could enjoy living in for years to come…..Working with One world design architects was a joy in that they listened keenly to what we were hoping for in our new house, designing a house that epitomised our hopes and dreams, constantly offering ideas and suggestions on finer details, and always working attentively with us to create our very special home. Their and our, relationship with our builder, Bramdean Construction Ltd, was always positive, even when there were issues or setbacks; everyone’s ‘can do’ approach kept the wheels moving……Two months after we moved in, a friend asked me whether I was yet able to feel ‘at home’ in our new house. I replied that I felt I had ‘come home’, that it was almost as though our new house had been there waiting for us to find it. It was One world design's vision, design and talent that made this happen.' Mrs K A – client.

Architect: One World Design Architects
Structural Engineer: Graphic Structures
M E Engineer: Pope Consulting
Garden Designer: Good Grounding
PV and Ground Source Specialist: Energy My Way
Contractor: Bramdean Construction