“A quiet and exquisite eco-house immersed in a verdant south-facing backyard, which is teeming with wildlife”
This multi-award-winning, excessive specification eco-house was designed by the acclaimed architect Meredith Bowles of Mole Architects in 2011. It occupies a quiet and secluded place on Madingley Highway, within the western part of the Conservation Space of Cambridge, and extends to over 2,460 sq ft. The inner residing house follows a single storey L-shaped plan designed round an inner south-facing backyard with a uncommon Liquidambar tree at its centre. The design takes an exacting strategy to mild and house, with a concentrate on pure supplies and power effectivity to help sustainable modes of recent residing.
The Architect
The celebrated architect Meredith Bowles based Mole Architects in 1996. The follow has obtained quite a few awards for its revolutionary strategy to design, together with the extremely prestigious RIBA Manser Medal (2004) for Meredith’s own residence which was deemed one of the best one-off home by an architect within the UK. This explicit home gained two RIBA awards in 2012, for its distinctive sustainability and ‘Spirit of Ingenuity’. Meredith is lively in selling sustainable design and lectures extensively.
The Tour
The home is ready again from Madingley Highway, amongst an space of tree-filled gardens on the western fringe of Cambridge. It’s uniquely hid behind a brick gatehouse extension, which homes a workshop and storage that gives personal off-street parking. Designed round a lot of present timber protected by a tree preservation order, displacement pile foundations have been chosen to create minimal disturbance to the roots.
The home was constructed utilizing a timber body, with clay blocks offering thermal mass, glulam beams supporting the roof house and a collection of built-in ambient power sources guaranteeing wonderful power effectivity. Rainwater is harvested and saved in a tank underground, photo voltaic panels are used for the new water provide and underfloor heating is generated from a floor supply warmth pump. There’s additionally mechanical air flow with a warmth restoration system and low power lighting fitted all through. Exterior ‘inexperienced partitions’ are mixed with timber cladding and insulated with hemp inside wooden fibre panels for breathability. A inexperienced sedum roof spans the easterly wing for extra insulation and biodiversity.
The first entrance leads straight right into a single south-facing hall that gives circulation to all areas, whereas retaining a direct visible connection to the backyard from each room. The kitchen and eating room are organized in an open-plan structure, with sliding glass doorways opening the complete house onto the interior courtyard. There’s an interconnected utility house and pantry retailer, and a research positioned adjacently. The arterial hall options deep bay home windows which give a beautiful, quiet spot for studying or having fun with the view with a morning espresso; they may even be used as sleeping areas for visiting kids.
The three bedrooms are fantastically proportioned; every has a superb provision of built-in storage and views onto hidden courtyards. Two of the bedrooms have direct entry to the backyard. The primary bed room has a big en suite rest room, with a backyard view from the tub by a strategically positioned low letterbox window. A household rest room is flanked by the 2 different bedrooms and has a cleverly conceived mirrored skylight overhead, which frames a view of the Liquidambar tree.
The fantastically mild, open-plan residing house is positioned on the westerly wing of the home, the place a big log-burner kinds a pure focus to the room. A ribbon of clerestory glazing and a wall of timber-framed glass partitions invite an distinctive high quality of pure mild to flood by; in the summertime months, the complete house will be opened onto the backyard.
Outside House
The surface house is an immersive celebration of native wildlife, wealthy in biodiversity and teeming with wildlife; geese make each day visits, as do loads of birds, 19 species of butterflies, newts and dragonflies, that are drawn to the character pond. There’s an extra backyard studio that gives wonderful flexibility of use, simply befitting an extra residence workspace, music studio or overflow lodging.
The Space
The home will be discovered on Madingley Highway on the westerly facet of Cambridge, round 20 minutes’ stroll from the centre and conveniently positioned close to lots of the college buildings. Though the town is comparatively intimate in scale, it has an outstanding collection of outlets, eating alternatives and cultural occasions, with Kettles Yard and The Fitzwilliam Museum notable highlights.
There are many inexperienced, open areas inside straightforward attain and pleasant strolling routes in direction of the River Cam, with Granchester Meadows providing alternatives for wild swimming. Cambridge is world-renowned for its college and the standard of its historic structure, but can also be more and more recognised as a global enterprise hub, because of its rising know-how and science industries.
A direct practice service runs from Cambridge to London St Pancras in roughly 50 minutes. In depth intercity bus providers additionally function from close by the home. The motorway community is well accessed, with the M11 round one and a half miles away.
Council Tax Band: G
Please notice that each one areas, measurements and distances given in these particulars are approximate and rounded.
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home equipment or particular fittings — potential purchasers are suggested to examine the property themselves.
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