This RIBA Competition-winning project for 26 dwellings in Elmswell, Sufolk, combines sustainable strategies for construction, lifetime energy use, landscape and the way we live and work from day to day. The project is a collaboration between Orwell Housing Association, The Suffolk Preservation Society, Mid-Suffolk District Council and the Parish of Elmswell; its ambition to provide affordable homes as house prices spiral out of the price range of local families and young people. A non-hierarchical site plan, with distinctive groupings of buildings, provides affordable, highly insulated and light filled homes. All the houses are orientated North-South and the form of each block, which is staggered in relation to its neighbours, has been designed to minimise overshadowing and maximise passive solar gain. Canted elevations, with ‘roof’ type construction, minimise the visual impact of the new buildings, and heat loss from the north facing facades is reduced through minimal perforation. The project has a number of sustainable measures incorporated in keeping with the ethos of the project; to be carbon neutral and an exemplar of sustainable housing design. A woodchip Biomass boiler provides heating and hot water to every house, south-facing glazing allows passive solar gain and whole house ventilation gives a healthy home environment. In addition rainwater recycling has been incorporated and every house uses this to water their garden and flush toilets. The project achieved an EcoHomes ‘excellent’ rating and obtained a grant from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme. The houses are constructed from a structural timber frame and use ‘Hemcrete’, a sprayed mixture of lime and hemp, to give a breathable and highly sustainable construction which is finished with lime render and lime washed. Public space is seen as a part of larger village life. Low maintenance communal gardens give spaces to cultivate, but also to relax, socialise and allow access for the wider community. These include a wildflower meadow, an orchard of Suffolk apples (with play equipment for small children under the trees) and allotments. Curved walls define the extent of the private gardens and give a sense of privacy and enclosure. Across the site a series of ‘swales’, dips and hollows, provide natural drainage, organise planting, movement and play, and recall ancient field patterns formed through cultivation. Paths are raised as piers through the landscape, slowing traffic and prioritising the pedestrian over the vehicle. We worked with primary school children to get grass roots buy-in from local residents, some of whom went on to occupy the houses being built. Tenant consultation involved allocation of allotments, formation of tenants association, and gave residents choice of either open plan or enclosed kitchens. A project with the local schools ‘eco-team’ involved presentations on ecology to the whole school, and site visits, some have ended up living in the project. This project is low maintenance, sustainable and durable. It has been midlisted for the Stirling Prize, and won an RIBA and 2 Housing Design Awards.