Over
recent years, concerns about climate change and damage to the environment
have led to an upsurge in demand for eco-friendly houses and Provizion
First Architecture has become more and more involved in this type of
development.
Conversion
of Outbuilding to form Eco-House
Commissioned in 2007 to turn a brick building with corrugated metal
roof, once forming part of a poultry farm, in green belt and a special
landscape area, into a three-bedroom family home.
After a long tussle with planning and conditions imposed on the approval,
construction works commenced in the spring of 2010 and the house was
occupied just before Christmas 2010.
The single-storey building accommodates a living/dining/kitchen area
with fully glazed end wall overlooking the Chevin Park valley, three
bedrooms, bathrooms, study and utility room. Two small extensions were
added to the original structure to provide a new entrance porch, and
a plant room to accommodate a pellet-fired boiler, hot water storage
tank, and controls for the various forms of heating and electrical equipment.
Solar thermal and photovoltaic panels, mounted on the roof, supplement
the pellet-fired boiler to feed the under floor whole-house heating
system and to provide hot water. There is also a feature free-standing
wood burning stove in the living room.
The flat roof, which curves down almost to ground level over the plant
room extension, is constructed as a sedum covered green roof. A steel
portal frame was inserted into the original half-brick skin shed walls
to support the weight of the new roof and to tie the brick walls together.
An independent insulated timber frame was then erected inside the existing
external walls. All internal walls are non-loadbearing timber stud with
plasterboard linings.
Externally, new windows in existing and modified openings are composite
timber and powder-coated aluminium with double-glazed units. The original
brick walls have been covered with through-coloured render and Siberian
Larch, which turn this former industrial shed into a thoroughly modern
21st Century home.
