Award winning Green House revealed

An award winning design for a house made of sheep wool and slag could pave the way to mass produced environmentally friendly family homes.


The zero-carbon Green House designed by Gaunt Francis Architects triumphed in the Home for the Future category of the British Home Awards – a competition to find eco-sensitive designs for mainstream housing of the future.

Andrew Sutton, firm associate and design team leader, told edie: “We were obviously delighted. We think it’s the right sort of blend of common sense and sustainability that fits what we try to do.

“The issue of volume housing, from which 27 percent of carbon emissions come, is a really significant proportion of the problem we face and it is something volume housing is not addressing it at the moment.

“The challenge was the possibility of bringing something to bear on that.”

“We are pleased and looking forward to cracking on and getting something built and demonstrating this can be done.”

Judges short listed nine entries with the winner voted on by Mail on Sunday readers and viewers of Real Estate TV and announced at the awards in London on Thursday, May 31.

An example of the house will be built as a show home on the Watford site of the Building Research Establishment.

It will feature recycled slag foundations, sheep-wool insulated walls, solar-panelled roofs, computer controlled heating, water recycling and energy efficient appliances.

The design is also to be circulated to volume house builders around the country.

Gaunt Francis is confident it shows how environmentalism can be reconciled with house building on a large scale – with a pay off to the buyer.

“It’s not a pipe dream but something which is achievable,” said Mr Sutton. “There’s always a slight premium for low energy builds but the more you build the lower the premium and I think people accept there will be some premium.

“And, if your house doesn’t really get fuel bills then you can be spending what you would have been spending on fuel on an additional bit of mortgage.”

David Gibbs

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