Houzz Tour: A Gloucestershire Family Home With an Eco-friendly Heart
This impressive home in the countryside manages to be family friendly and super sustainable at the same time
A family-friendly home that’s kind to the environment was the main stipulation when Robbie McDonald and Caroline Keenan were drawing up the brief for their new house. Robbie, a professor of natural environment at the University of Exeter, and Caroline, a family lawyer, wanted it to be as sustainable as possible, using locally sourced materials to keep their carbon footprint to a minimum.
It was a challenge architect Tomas Millar, from Millar Howard Workshop, embraced wholeheartedly. He steered the couple towards a Passivhaus – or passive house – approach (a rigorous standard of certification for energy efficiency), achieving low levels of energy consumption using state-of-the-art technology designed to keep the house as insulated as possible.
‘As well as the environmental concerns, the biggest challenge was to make the house an enjoyable space for the whole family,’ Tomas recalls. ‘In the end, we settled on an open-plan living area with family life at the heart of the design.’
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here Robbie McDonald, Caroline Keenan and their three children
Location Horsley, Gloucestershire
Designer Tomas Millar of Millar Howard Workshop
Size 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
It was a challenge architect Tomas Millar, from Millar Howard Workshop, embraced wholeheartedly. He steered the couple towards a Passivhaus – or passive house – approach (a rigorous standard of certification for energy efficiency), achieving low levels of energy consumption using state-of-the-art technology designed to keep the house as insulated as possible.
‘As well as the environmental concerns, the biggest challenge was to make the house an enjoyable space for the whole family,’ Tomas recalls. ‘In the end, we settled on an open-plan living area with family life at the heart of the design.’
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here Robbie McDonald, Caroline Keenan and their three children
Location Horsley, Gloucestershire
Designer Tomas Millar of Millar Howard Workshop
Size 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
Tomas wanted to differentiate the various sections of the external cladding, opting for larch wood in different finishes. The mid section of the house features charred larch (charring acts as a natural preservative), which adds character to the otherwise contemporary structure.
A wood-pellet stove – glimpsed on the left – fuels the entire house and was integral to the environmentally friendly credentials of the design. ‘It’s an automatic feed,’ explains Tomas. ‘It turns itself on only when it’s needed, so it’s incredibly efficient. There’s no gas at all, which makes it very sustainable.’
‘The views were crucial to Robbie and Caroline, so each window in the house is designed to pick up the best angle possible,’ explains Tomas. A bifolding window in the kitchen opens up to breathtaking views of the surrounding valley, and acts rather like a landscape painting.
Check out ways to frame a view
Check out ways to frame a view
The family wanted a pared-back interior, and the unfussy scheme allows the different zones of the open-plan living area to flow seamlessly into one another. Elegant limestone flooring creates warmth downstairs, while an interior balcony that contains the kids’ play area is fitted with slit windows, ensuring the family remain connected even when they’re in different parts of the house.
Low-energy Plumen pendant lights hang high above the table in the dining area, emphasising the sense of openness in the house. Sleek cabinetry and neat sliding doors hide bulky kitchen appliances and the TV. ‘It’s very clean and crisp, which suits the family down to a T,’ says Tomas.
Upstairs, the wide landing makes a great play area for the kids. It also has floor-to-ceiling cupboards that stash masses of stuff to help maintain the home’s enviably uncluttered look.
‘Installing bifold doors is a trick we often use,’ says Tomas. ‘It’s a great way to bring the outside in, doubling the size of the room in the process.’ These doors were custom made for the house and are triple glazed to seal the heat in and keep the elements out, in accordance with the Passivhaus approach to the build.
‘We were fairly limited with the space upstairs, so we kept the children’s rooms quite small, as they have the shared play area on the landing,’ explains Tomas. To make up for this, he introduced platform beds in the loft space, which although compact, are lots of fun.
See more hip kids’ hideaways
See more hip kids’ hideaways
Silver wallpaper lends a space-age feel to the boy’s room, which has views to the nearby woods via a skylight. It’s this blend of the natural world and modern style that Tomas enjoys. ‘What I love most about this house is the combination of vernacular materials and contemporary design,’ says Tomas. ‘Externally, it’s materially very rich, but inside it’s charming and pared back. It’s very much a house for this family, and that’s what makes it work.’
Tempted by passive house principles? Let us know what you think in the Comments below.
Tempted by passive house principles? Let us know what you think in the Comments below.
Discover more beautiful wood cladding homes.