The proposed massing of the Eco-House scheme Banbridge County Downs utilises a traditional courtyard shape and using traditional materials and finishes. The massing of the house is broken down into two distinct elements which present the overall forms of a traditional cottage and attached barn, with the proposed garage adopting the form of a smaller adjacent agricultural barn framing a courtyard space to the front of the property. The design has been developed to adopt a ‘T’ shape to the overall plan with the ‘barn’ element sitting perpendicular to the ‘cottage’. This form allows the cottage to orientate to the entrance from the lane and to take advantage of both the south aspect for daylight and solar gains, and the north aspect for views across the drumlin topography towards the nearby rath, whilst providing privacy to the accommodation within the ‘barn’ element. The T-plan form also helps minimise the visual impact from any vantage point, and breaks up the mass to provide visual interest. In keeping with the traditional cottage and barn forms the plans incorporate linear forms with shallow plan depth with a steeply pitched roof to the cottage element and curved roof to the barn picking up the ‘Belfast Truss’ language of agricultural buildings common to the area. The ‘cottage’ element houses the principal living spaces whilst the ‘barn’ element contains the more private bedroom and home office accommodation. A short linking element between the two forms provides the principal entrance to the dwelling as well as providing utility and bathroom space. External materials are intended to develop this language, with the ‘barn’ element featuring a vertically orientated corrugated steel cladding common on early 20th Century barns sat atop a low random rubble limestone, and the cottage clad to the principal elevations with charred timber. The fenestration is intended to reflect the simplicity of traditional agricultural forms, with a small number of large openings and minimal frames.