WINNER
Sunnybank by Venner Lucas

The winner of the Grand Designs ‘Home of the Year’ Award 2011 is Sunnybank by Venner Lucas Architects.

Brief
To replace a 1970’s bungalow on the top of a south facing hillside site on the edge of a small village built mainly from locally quarried stone.
To be a sustainable contemporary home that is spacious, suitable for a growing family and takes maximum advantage of the hillside setting.

Solution
The design provides approximately 270m2 internal floor area on two levels, ground (entry) and lower ground (garden level) exploiting the natural slope of the site. Both levels are single aspect – the ground level to provide privacy to and from the immediate neighbours, the lower level as a consequence of the site. Timber frame construction with local stone facing to the entrance and timber cladding to the bedroom box is used for the ground floor and a concrete shell forms the lower (base) level.
It settles into the hillside, responding to the landscape by providing views of land and sky through extensive glazing, basking the interior in daylight and linking the occupants to the outside, exploiting solar power with passive and active systems providing all the required energy needs for the house. Using further natural means ground temperature is used to passively cool the larder and temper ventilation air as required.

Additional Information
The build proceeded with a local builder managing the site with separate contracts for the trades and specialists together with the Architects making site inspections and managing the process.
The initial design followed well understood low energy design principles, however, shortly after works commenced it was decided that the building should achieve PassivHaus standards and energy requirements from renewable sources.
This required the use of the PHPP design tool and changes to the detailing, in particular to accommodate increased levels of insulation and strict attention to construction details to improve air tightness.
PV-t micro solar generation was chosen to meet both the electrical and thermal demands assisted by an air to water heat pump incorporated in the MVHR unit.

Other environmental issues addressed by specifying:
Concrete with fuel ash cement replacement.
Stone for external walls – hand picked from local fields.
Rainwater collection and storage for all WC flushing.

Grand Designs Magazine Editor, Bernie Herlihy said of Sunnybank:
An eco home that looks fantastic, I love the use of natural materials on the exterior and I think the single aspect nature of each floor is a clever solution to the overlooking issues and the need to maximise its hilltop view. It snuggles into its site when seen from the front and looks right at home.

Venner Lucas Architects
www.vennerlucas.co.uk
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
020 8673 0291

Chris Humphreys Photography
www.chp-architecturalphotography.com
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it