Woodland House
Set deep in Oxfordshire’s green belt, Woodland House is a stunning replacement dwelling built to a high-performing low-energy standard.
To make use of the stunning views to the rear of the property, all main living spaces were orientated to frame views of the dramatic cascading landscape. The open-plan kitchen/dining/living room and master bedroom overlook the woodland and the garden as it flows down the hill towards the pond. The master bedroom, which features a substantial terrace/balcony, also has excellent treetop views, immersing you in the canopies amongst the birds.
WWA worked with the client at Woodland House to design a replacement house within the constraints of Green Belt planning policies, which restricted the permissible volume of structures on the site. This was a leading constraint in the early design process, along with other key design drivers like the need to include a substantial bat loft. The site’s greatest virtue, its mature woodland, was also one of the most challenging parameters around which to design. Each of the mature trees had a root protection area associated with it, meaning that either no construction or only very specific and technical types of groundwork could be undertaken within close proximity to the trees.
Our team at WWA takes sustainable building practices and low-energy design very seriously, and so we are delighted when given the chance to work with a client who shares the same values. The property was constructed using a prefabricated timber frame structure to ensure construction precision and speed on-site. This has the benefit (in sustainability terms) of significantly reducing waste compared to on-site fabrication methods. The buildings’ thermal linings were also specified to significantly exceed building regulation requirements. Our Passivhaus-qualified architects detailed the building to ensure thermal continuity, which was carefully considered, particularly at bespoke junctions in this one-of-a-kind design. In addition to careful airtightness detailing, the project also utilised an AeroBarrier system to ensure airtightness of below 2m³/(h·m²) at 50 Pa was achieved. The property utilises an ASHP and is supported by a 9.5kWh PV array at the roof level. Taken together, each of the energy-saving measures described above amounts to a very efficient home design, and we look forward to updating this article after a year of measured performance with some in-use statistics about the energy consumption achieved.
