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New Folly Gate - New-build off-grid Passivhaus

Project Details

£0.5m to £0.99M

New Build

Practice

StudioExe Ltd

Capital Office, Kemp House , 152-160 City Road , LONDON , EC1V 2NX

The site of this new-build house is to be located within a natural clearing of a Devon woodland. The sloped site topography and challenging access track presented an opportunity to design a fully off-grid house which will have no reliance on external services. It will generate all of its own power through solar panels, store excess energy within a battery fuel cell and will have a self-sufficient water and waste cycle on site. This new-build high performance house is designed to a Passivhaus specification which includes an over-insulated external envelope, airtight construction, triple glazing and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. These components provide a high level of occupant comfort while using very little energy for heating and cooling. In terms of massing, the principal linear enclosure with cranked roof and blackened vertical timber cladding, is designed to gently sit on the sloped topography with a cantilevered external deck. In contrast, the smaller connecting enclosures with dry stone wall cladding and green roof morph into the adjacent hillside.