Eco friendly homes are what architects and designers start to look nowadays. One of those sustainable homes was designed by Simon Winstanley Architects, which located on a spectacular site overlooking the Solway Firth. The site is a steeply sloping, former quarry in a National Scenic Area.
The house is conceived as a stone plinth which echos the exposed quarry face and houses the bedrooms with a garage & entrance under at the level of the quarry base. The principal living accommodation is expressed as a lightweight glazed ‘pavilion’ sitting on the solid plinth. It is set back to form an external terrace facing the sea and to reduce the apparent mass of the house.
As an eco friendly house, the Deepstone building is equipped with the following low energy features:
- The external walls, floor and roof are insulated to a high standard and air infiltration is minimised.
- Triple glazed windows with warm edge spacer bars, thermally broken frames and inert gas filled to achieve a whole window u-value of 0.7W/m2K.
- Heat pump using a borehole as the ground source for the underfloor heating and hot water system with a closed combustion woodburning stove as back up.
- Micro generation of renewable electricity using roof mounted Photovoltaic Panels.
- Whole house heat recovery ventilation system.
Upon the completion of the modern eco friendly house, the architects has awarded with a prestigious Saltire Society Housing Design Award, and a Design Commendation from the Glasgow Institute of Architects and a Chartered Institute of Building Commendation Award. The project was also shortlisted in the Roses Design Awards.The project was also shortlisted in the Roses Design Awards.
