Agricultural form and materials, contemporary timeless aesthetics, modern living.

Conceived as a low-energy contemporary barn-style home, New House Farm, fuses the traditions of agricultural form and contemporary timeless aesthetics. Effortlessly blending into the landscape forming the backdrop to modern life. Tailored Architecture has deployed the principles of Passive House and low-carbon technologies establishing a home for an environmental future.

The two-storey, three bedroomed, dwelling is directly derived from the site’s physical and planning context while optimising the efficiency of architectural form and solar access. Creating a dwelling nestled in the landscape. The compact form reduces the potential future running costs.

The home is designed to blend the line between the internal semi-open plan spaces and the garden beyond with extensive sliding glazed doors to the southern aspect. The dining area is at the heart of the house providing a sociable family space between the living room and kitchen area. A first-floor overhang creates a sheltered space to sit while providing solar shading with movable screens in high summer.

The materiality is traditional and vernacular in nature capturing the Cambridgeshire style and the heritage of fenland agricultural buildings.

The front aspect is designed to follow agricultural traditions in form while providing a contemporary edge and timeless style. Red clay plain tile roofing and cladding, Cambridge buff brickwork, and selected slivered timber cladding are offset by a zinc dormer projected living room window reminiscent of lead-clad hoist positions. The handmade quality of the materials softens the clean lines of the zinc cladding to the projecting windows. A homogenous roofscape is formed with the inclusion of red clay plain tile cladding to the rear first-floor element. Solar shading is designed into the rear facade in an agricultural aesthetic with metal movable louvred screens. The agricultural scale of the dwelling is observed with the addition of non-domestic scale punched windows and extensive sliding doors.

The dwelling has been designed to reduce the overall running costs for future occupiers using our full sustainable approach. Find out more here. All our projects are designed to principles to reduce energy consumption and intensity prior to deploying low-carbon technologies.

The house will be constructed of a superinsulated timber frame, a continuous airtightness layer, and a low-carbon air-source heat pump driving underfloor heating. There is also a provision for the installation of a PV-T array with battery storage to provide both electrical generation and pre-heated domestic hot water.

New House Farm has been evaluated during the design process using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) to optimise the building envelope, form, and fenestration layout. Completed at an early stage and embedded in the design process demonstrates the potential of the project to reach the required energy targets. The proposals confrom to the principles of Passive House and the LETI energy targets.

Further analysis will inform the approach to construction methodology and surface materials to minimise the embodied carbon impact of the development.

* Calculated space heating cost – not including domestic hot water, lighting and plug loads. Calculated at £437.57/yr based on PHPP predicted space heating demand of 14.8 kWh/m2/yr and stated heat pump coefficient of 2.5. Based on a 44p standing charge and 24-hour rate of 29.22p/kWh. This figure ignores PV array generated electricity and any feed-in tariffs.

All targets established by the Low Energy Transformation Iniative and RIBA 2030 Cliamate Challenge.