The proposed four-bedroom detached house will be built within the grounds of an existing house in York’s Acomb district and is designed to meet the German passivhaus standard. The 1,500 square foot building will be split into two ‘blocks’ and is influenced by the way in which an adjacent Georgian/Edwardian house is split into two sets of rooms either side of a circulation space.
The building will also include polycarbonate cladding, ‘thin film’ PV strips, solar thermal panels, triple-glazed windows and doors, an MVHR heat recovery system and a super-insulated airtight construction. It will also include a wood-burning stove and rainwater collectors. The various features will make the building around 75 percent more efficient than a conventional new build house.
“Using our design and planning expertise, we won the confidence of City of York Council” said Charlotte Harrison, a partner at Mass Architecture. “It is a very challenging site, being visible within the conservation area, but we believe that we have produced an elegant solution. We hope that the scheme will become a landmark building in York both in terms of its contemporary design and its ultra-low energy use.”
Ms Harrison said that the building will use the same colours and materials as the existing property next door and will be built in a clean and simple manner. The company has also designed the landscaping around the building given that the grounds include a number of protected trees and other valuable features. The construction phase of the project is expected to start next year.
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