Nestled in the Chiltern hills, this oak framed home sets a new standard for healthy family living, framing its picturesque setting, integrating passive environmental design strategies & building with low carbon, locally sourced materials. The project began with the dream of capturing & complimenting the beauty of the nature and landscape surrounding this Oxfordshire countryside site. Our client wanted to create a unique home for his family that would be highly sustainable and would transform their lifestyles. The family previously occupied a grade two listed farmhouse which had a unique character, made with beautiful natural materials of oak, knapped flint and delicately patterned brickwork but was a cold, dark home to live in and could no longer meet the needs of a growing family. The site was richly planted with a range of trees and wildflowers with a panoramic view out across rolling meadows and woodland. A key aim from the start was to build a home which enhanced the biodiverse, natural qualities of the site by integrating a robust planting strategy which echoed the pastoral surroundings. The form of the home is made of three wings, each angled to capture a range of different vistas across the site. This fragmentary approach also allows southerly sunlight to pass over the home to the north terrace of the property which is wrapped by the 2 other wings of the home, maintaining privacy and framing the landscape beyond. Buildings in the Chiltern hills have a distinctive material language defined by the local geology and nature. Barns and farmhouses have traditionally been made up of groups of fragmentary additions, new wings and subsequent extensions. Our new design echoes this fragmentary approach through its massing and follows the traditions of local oak framed structures, knapped flint walling and richly patterned brickwork, achieving a design which is both respectful of tradition and embracing of contemporary lifestyles. Blurring the boundary between the home and garden was also a key goal, achieved through interiors with large pivoting, picture windows which allow one to appreciate the changing of the seasons and flow seamlessly out into the garden. These large windows flood the home with the changing character of natural light and allow the sun to passively heat the home through passive solar heat gain. A passive approach to ventilation (one which removes the need and cost of artificial air conditioning) is achieved through two principle processes, cross ventilation, which allows air to pass freely horizontally through each wing of the home & by stack ventilation which occurs within the central, double-height entrance hall. This natural stack effect occurs in tall spaces which encourage warmer air to rise up and be released through skylights. Using a natural timber finish and exposed oak frame within the home removed all plasterboard from the project, lowering the home’s embodied carbon and potential for damaging VOC off-gassing achieving a much healthier internal environment. Using natural materials such as timber with constant views out to nature has also been shown to greatly improve both mental and physical health and was focal to our strategy for a healthy family home. The design of this home draws from local vernacular buildings but also from the rich history of architect’s country houses with references to the plan’s of Palladio’s villas, Kazuo Shinohara’s powerful use of structure and the fluid relationship to nature of the American case study houses of Koenig and Quincy Jones.