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Eco Minimalism in new housing |
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9 Nov 2008, 4:14 PM
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Riches Hawley Mikhail Architects’ new affordable housing scheme, situated within an existing village in Suffolk, combines contemporary design, sustainable construction with low energy use and innovative local materials.
Clay Fields in Elmswell, a village in rural Suffolk, consists of 26 affordable homes - nine three-bed houses, 13 two-bed and four one-bed flats for local people.
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Riches Hawley Mikhail were commissioned in 2006 following a RIBA design competition led by Orwell Housing Association in partnership with Elmswell Parish Council, Mid Suffolk District Council and the Suffolk Preservation Society. The competition for rural and community housing was a response to the lack of affordable housing for local people in a rapidly-growing commuter belt. The brief demanded a high quality, low carbon scheme without any ‘greenwash’.
The low carbon agenda demanded by the client helped the architects develop the scheme but the result is more eco-minimalism than eco-housing. There are no solar panels or wind turbines extruding from the houses. Above all, it is thoughtful design that gives the scheme its sustainable credentials.
Riches Hawley Mikhail has designed a terrace consisting of three houses for Elmswell. The geometry of this form is a simple five-sided prism at the gable-end. The front facades are clad in continuous wooden weatherboards. Variety is brought to the elevations through the different positioning and size of windows, punched out of the wooden cladding. The arrangement of the windows has been determined with engineers’ Buro Happold to establish the optimal relationship between solar gain and daylight as well as making the most of long views out.
A sloping elevation and single pitch roof-line minimises the visual impact of the new buildings. The low profile and varying scales of the buildings are designed to minimise overshadowing, enabling the low winter sun (typical of the area’s flat landscape) to reach all properties. The terraces have been carefully positioned in distinctive groups staggered around open space and adjacent to the neighbouring housing. The buildings are orientated north-south to maximise the heat of the sun and off-setting achieves the best possible light, privacy and views. All homes get a view – they do not look onto each other but onto open space. The landscaping was born out of a desire to make an enjoyable series of places for people to look at and use as well as being a vital contribution to village life. The landscaping includes four communal green spaces that can be used by both the residents and the neighbouring community: a low maintenance wildflower meadow, a Suffolk-apple orchard, allotments with composting facilities and a kick-around area. This mix of landscape treatments and a series of ‘swales’ (dips and hollows like those made by medieval ploughing), provide natural drainage to the site which was previously prone to water-logging.
The project features a number of systems that have helped to make it an energy-efficient build and will keep the energy bills low when in use.(1) The houses are constructed of a timber frame, filled with Hemcrete - a sprayed mix of lime and hemp – the first sprayed application in the UK. These Hemcrete walls help to make the construction airtight by embedding the timber-framed structure in the insulation. Site waste was minimised with the use of Hemcrete, pre-fabricated timber frames and topsoil has been stored and redistributed across the site. Recycled aggregate is used in the foundations. Internally, the layout is carefully designed to maximise space, light and through-ventilation. The floors are staggered with an open stairwell running from the kitchen to the rooflights. This allows a through-flow of air and the homes to be ventilated naturally in the Summer. In Winter, an additional mechanical system removes 80 per cent of heat from outgoing air and uses it to heat incoming air. Sheep’s wool for insulation, a biomass community heating system (fuelled by locally sourced wood chips) that heats all the homes from a single boiler and rainwater recycling, will further reduce the carbon footprint of the homes when occupied.
Resident consultation has formed a key part of the design process. The local primary school has been involved in the project from the beginning – site visits and talks have encouraged a sense of ownership and engagement in the project and the spaces where they will play. Residents will be given a user-friendly guide, “How to live in your eco-home”, containing helpful tips like when to and when not to open windows, to ensure that the green aspirations of the project are continued in practice. Buro Happold will carry out a post-occupancy evaluation of energy consumption.
1. Clay Fields will have very low in-use and embodied carbon emissions compared to almost any other multiunit residential project completed in the UK to date. The scheme will emit 60% less carbon compared to a standard regulations-compliant building Source: Buro Happold
Project team
Architect: Riches Hawley Mikhail Architects
Client: Orwell Housing Association
Landscape Architect: J&L Gibbons LLP
M&E: Inviron
Structural Engineer: BTA Structural Design Ltd
Sustainability engineer: Buro Happold Ltd.
Civil Engineers: Scott Taylor incorporating Cameron Taylor
Contractor O. Seaman and Son Ltd.
QS: Hyams and Partners
Funding: East England Development Agency, Housing Corporation
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