“Truly outstanding and ground-breaking…”

“Very occasionally, the exceptional quality and innovative nature of the design of a proposed, isolated new house may provide this special justification for granting planning permission.  Such a design should be truly outstanding and ground-breaking ….”. We were confronted by these words from paragraphs 10 and 11 of PPS 7 for an isolated house in the countryside, when we first embarked on  the design of a house outside the developable area in a National Park.

With that very high bar, The Pump House was granted planning permission in 2009 under the provisions of this planning legislation and was only one of about a dozen successful consents in in the first 500 applications. It is worth noting that PPS 7 has since been superseded by Paragraph 55, then 79 and now 80 in the various iterations of the NPPF, and it is clear from the wording of this paragraph that some of the more difficult terms in paragraph 11 of PPS7, as quoted above,  were not carried forward and the design of dwellings can now either be truly outstanding or innovative, but they no longer have to be both.

Despite a change in ownership and the time lapse, the building has altered little from the design drawings. We have always said that a good building is as much about a good client as a good architect, and this is a testament to this. The client who bought the site with the benefit of planning has followed, with very few alterations, the original design and has project managed the construction to ensure it.

The house has now been completed, over 10 years after the consent, and occupied for a full winter. There are a number of remarkable aspects to it.

Firstly, its energy credentials (if you don’t like figures, skip this paragraph!). Its SAP rating was 121. To put this into context, 45% of all pre-1919 dwellings have a SAP score of less than 30, whilst less than 1% have a SAP score above 70, which is considered good (figures from BRE-https://files.bregroup.com/bre-co-uk-file-library-copy/filelibrary/pdf/rpts/EnergyEfficiency.pdf). You need to have a score of 92 and above to be considered excellent, which equates SAP to an EPC rating A – the best you can get. Attaining a score of 100 ensures a future use of zero energy, and 121 signifies a carbon negative building: this has been proven by the first winter in occupation, when the underfloor electric heating has not been used and the house has been a significant net contributor to the grid.

The combination of the high levels of insulation, airtightness and thermal mass results in comfortable internal temperatures whatever the external temperature. The first year of occupation has demonstrated an internal temperature of approximately 23C when the temperature outside has been below 0C, and 19/20C when outside temperature has been 30C (without the use of any heating or air conditioning).

The Solar PV panels feed a Tesla Powerwall 2 battery which enables the export of excess solar electricity to the grid and off-grid power at night or during a power cut.

Of the other features we will just describe a few:

A 5000-litre rainwater harvesting system which supplies water for all the WC’s, the washing machine and garden/roof irrigation.

A green roof planted with a wildflower meadow mix has started to take hold and is part of a Biodiversity Strategy that includes over 60 different species of herbaceous and medicinal plants, bulbs, trees and shrubs. More than 80% of the species planted were chosen for their value to wildlife, utilising native trees and shrubs of local provenance or other non-native species with a known benefit to local wildlife.

The build was conducted with rigid compliance to waste management standards which resulted in less than 2% of construction waste ending up in landfill.

For more on the concept for the design see work….