St Matthew of Baywater's attic

The approach requested was to explore a contemporary and sustainable conversion of seemingly moribund spaces at the top of an early Victorian vicarage. The parishioners wanted a legible and open figure to the construction, and a sociable neighbourliness.

Flexibility and clarity of interior construction is attempted through a generally pervasively visible timber construction. Insulation specified and constructed in the conversion was to very high standards
enewable timber is the only constructive building material along with steel, other materials being glass, silicone, insulation and then the fittings.

We specified sustainable (fsc) ply spruce sheets, and birch, all fsc certified. Full-uncut sheets were used for minimum wastage. The tall cupboards are close to 8 feet expressing sheet size.

To minimise energy use we have incorporated high levels of insulation throughout, with air-tightness. All walls have 60mm thick Gyproc ThermaLine SUPER plasterboard, which provides a thermal insulation U value 0.25. The roof has further insulation in the interstices co-achieving less than .2 U value.

All new windows are double glazed with high performance glass. Specified as two panes of 6mm toughened Optitherm glass, and a 16mm argon filled cavity, this delivering a U value of just less than 0.9, which is approximately 50% better than narrow space double glazing in heat loss terms.

To soundproof we added a floating sandwiched layer of greenboard and sound-absorbent sika acoustibond adhesed super-floor, in effect a double floating floor.