Nestled in a half-acre garden plot in a Gloucestershire village surrounded by historic landmarks of Castles and Keeps, this house stands out for its contemporary design sophistication, efficiency and innovation. Boasting timber-frame construction and renewable energy sources, Hanse Haus has created a unique marriage of sustainability and style, designing a modern, ‘eco’ home in the heart of England.
Having previously lived in a large Georgian house, Karen Prior swapped the historical for the modern when she realised her five bedroom self-build dream. Keen to move away from drafty and characteristically cold, period properties, she worked with Hanse Haus to create a home with modern technology and an energy-efficient build system at its core.
Karen placed huge emphasis on bringing the outdoors inside. Being a florist by trade, she desired a house that represented her creativity and love of art-deco style. By blending together wood and glass and incorporating a mixture of triple-glazed tilt n’ turn windows and floor-to-ceiling sliding doors, the house does just that - elegantly capturing the outdoors and fusing it with state-of-the-art technology and colourful open-plan living spaces, ideal for entertaining.
The interior provides a spacious, free-flowing 180m2 living space. Upon entering the house, you are immediately drawn towards the heart of the home; the exceptionally light and airy, open-plan kitchen, dining, lounge and atrium. These rooms seamlessly fuse with the outside environment, being warmed by natural sunlight from floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors, which open onto the garden and extend the social spaces outdoors.
The oak staircase leads up from the central hall to a spacious galleried landing on the first floor, again with wonderful views, via the atrium, over the garden. Four of the five bedrooms are situated upstairs, positioned in all four corners of the house. The master enjoys vaulted ceilings, an ensuite bathroom and double glass doors that open up onto a Juliet balcony, overlooking the garden.
Underfloor heating runs throughout the entire house, powered by an air source heat pump, which - combined with the whole house ventilation system, thermal insulation (a mineral wool product) in the 30cm walls, ceilings and roofs - naturally and efficiently holds the heat and maintains a wonderful even temperature throughout. Despite the large windows facing the rear of the house, efficiency tests have proven the home to have a very high level of air tightness, ensuring no heat is lost and fulfilling Karen’s dream of creating a stylish energy efficient home.
Furthering Karen’s passion for clean living and environmentally friendly construction, the house is, in many respects, ‘chemical free’. Only the roof rafters and battens were impregnated with BOR salt to protect the wood against humidity, otherwise, no wood preservation was used and all materials are chemical free. On top of this, the house is constructed using a timber frame construction - a method with the lowest energy consumption and CO2 emissions of any commonly used building material. Added to this, the short construction time on site meant there was minimal disturbance on the surrounding environment. What’s more, the entire house can also be rebuilt and recycled.
This house, constructed from start to finish in just eight weeks, represents something quite special – a high efficiency, 21st century home with beautiful, freeform, interior spaces. Not only does it fulfill Karen’s dreams, it also stands tall as a testament to the future of energy efficient construction in the UK.
Oliver Grimshaw, Head of UK Sales, Hanse Haus GmbH
Oliver Grimshaw is the Head of UK Sales for premium German supplier of pre-manufactured, high-efficiency homes. Founded back in 1929, Hanse Haus now erects some 400 homes annually Europe-wide and has been active in the UK since 2006.
With over 85 years’ experience in the construction industry and boasting more than 30,000 completed homes, the company is also a certified builder of the remarkable Passivhaus; a home that loses almost no heat through its walls, roof and windows, thanks to extremely high levels of thermal insulation.
