Completed : 2022
PUBLICATIONS
RIBA Magazine, February 2022
Grand Design Magazine, May 2022
Architecture Today, June 2022
AWARDS
Schüco Excellence Awards for Design and Innovation 2022
TEAM
Architect : A-Zero Architects
Giles Bruce, Phillip Toyin, Ross King, Shoichi Sado, Mizue Katayama
Quantity Surveyor :
Structural Design:
Entuitive Consulting Engineers
Contractor :
Windows & Doors:
Glulam/ CLT :
Renewables:
Quarry House,
Oxfordshire, UK,
This new build house is constructed within the pit of a disused quarry. The site is amazing, nestled between a mature deciduous forest on one side, and open fields on the other. The project was granted permission under Paragraph 79, of the National Planning Policy Framework which requires a proposal’s design to be ‘truly outstanding or innovative, reflecting the highest standards in architecture, and would help to raise standards of design more generally in rural areas’.
The starting point for this project was the materials of the site, stone from the quarry and timber from the forest. The house is conceived as two parts. The lower level is built within the quarry pit and hidden from view. the plan is organised around a series of stone walls which run through the length of the house and connect to stone walls within the sunken gardens and landscape beyond. The upper level is a timber frame construction using both glulam and CLT to provide a cantilevered eaves structure which allows uninterrupted views to the vistas beyond.
The house is organised as around a central double height atrium space, which is flanked by a series of private and semi-private space at two levels, each with their own view to the outside landscaping. The construction is designed to Passivehouse standards.
Building in wood
The above ground super structure of this house is almost entirely fabricated of timber – from the glulam structural frame to the prefabricated timber cassettes that form the envelope. The structural timber structure is fully internalised and stiffened by a series of longitudinal CLT panels which run the length of the building. The Guest House is constructed in CLT in order to achieve the long span across its section.
Above : Exposed glulam frame in the main house.
Left : CLT being craned into place
Below : Stone and steel external materials
Low Energy operation
This house is designed to Passive-house standards, meaning that the energy required to keep it comfortable through the year does not exceed 15kWh/m2 .The low space heating demand was achieved through high levels insulation in the envelope, and high performance glazing by Schucho, is designed to minimise heat loss in winter and solar gains in summer.
The house still needs a source of heat, and this is provided using a heat pump which harvests heat from a 1,400m2 ground collector located 1m below the landscape. An array of photo-voltaic cells also provides the house with a source of electricity, generating around 3.5 kW in summer.
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