Pond House

The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads is Britain's largest protected wetland and third largest inland waterway, with the status of a national park it is a particularly sensitive location to new-build developments.

A number of key factors were instrumental in establishing a brief for the new home. From the outset the client was keen to provide an environmentally responsive and sustainably designed solution with the garden pond to remain a central feature. The new house is approx. 110sqm and comprises of a kitchen, an open plan living room, dining room with two bedrooms and two bathrooms with a dedicated utility/plant room.

Expressed as an identifiable traditional form, the proposed house draws from the vernacular forms and materials and how they are positioned in the landscape. The house is clad with untreated rough sawn Siberian Larch and is used not only for the walls but across the entire roof. The single-storey house is located primarily to respond to the South facing aspect of the site with the accommodation organised into two distinct volumes, namely living rooms and bedrooms areas.

From the initial stages the house has been developed in accordance with the Passivhaus Planning Package (PhPP) and has been used to refine the building to ensure an energy efficient solution.

The installation of solar thermal and photovoltaic panels supplement the environmental strategy. Externally a SuDS adopts a number of techniques such as infiltration swales and rainwater harvesting system diverting water towards the bottom of the garden and into the stream beyond.