Residential
Coles House
How we helped:
• Renewable energy feasibility study
• Energy services design
• Full tender specification
• Installer tender process
Located in a stunning rural location west of Petersfield, this five-bedroom, 500m2 house is bordered by acres of established formal gardens and woodland. The concept for the design by AR Design Studio was to connect the new dwelling with the existing gardens rather than impose itself on them.
The design was based on four simple forms set and divided by the existing site axis around a courtyard. These forms were manipulated to allow specific views and positioned in a staggered arrangement to ‘touch’ the ground and ‘rise’ to the sky, connecting the house with the landscape around it.
This landscape flows through, under and over the house in the form of open terracing, a swimming pool, long views, a lowered courtyard, and a green roof which takes inspiration from an animal hide and steps up through the house to the tower.
Energy Strategy
This type of dwelling would traditionally have heating and hot water powered by oil, which would not only have a very negative environmental impact but would have led to extremely high heating and energy costs.
Mesh worked closely with the private client from the beginning of the design process to develop a site-wide heating and electricity production strategy.
Practical Solutions and Technical Support
Our engineers designed and specified the renewable energy systems, and assisted with procurement of installers.
The solution was to use ground and air source heat pump technology and a significant solar photovoltaic array to power the home and provide year-round heating to all the internal spaces, and to heat the swimming pool.
The building is net-zero carbon, and the total return on investment, including funding from the Renewable Heat Initiative and the Feed-In Tariffs (FIT) scheme available at the time, was 1040%.
Images – AR Design Studio
