Underhill House
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Samuel Ashfield Download Original
House dug into a hill, partly under an old barn, design to have minimal visual and environmental impact
Prominently located at the top of a hill in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty the house is almost invisible form the surrounding countryside. The concrete house is built into the hillside under an existing barn which planners determined need to remain on site, and will now be used as a home office.
Two sides of the L-shaped underground house face south and are almost entirely glazed with high-performance triple glazing, maximising solar gain and minimising heat loss. The rest of the structure is earth-sheltered and highly insulated.
The underground construction is entirely concrete, mostly precast, much of which is exposed internally to exploit thermal mass.
The house became the first certified PassivHaus in England in January 2010.
Data
- Begun: Jan 2009
- Completed: Aug 2010
- Floor area: 375m2
- Sector: House
- Total cost: £575,000
- Procurement: JCT Construction Management
- CO2 Emissions: 4.9kg/m2/year
- Address: Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Seymour-Smith Architects
- Client: Chris and Helen Seymour-Smith
- Main contractor: Seymour-Smith Architects
- Structural engineer: OMK Design Consultancy
- Services engineer: Cotswold Green Energy
- PassivHaus certification: Scottish Passive House Centre
- Main contractor: B.A. Hull
Suppliers
- Precast concrete: Aggregate Industries
- Waterproofing: Fosroc
- STYROFOAM insulation: Dow
- Insulated facade system: STO
- Glazing : Optiwin
- Solar roofing: Solex
- Rainwater tank: Rainwater HOG
