REAL PROJECT SUSTAINABLE SELF-BUILD
Duncan and Anaya Bush’s home may look like just a series of simple cubes, but it has been cleverly constructed to include sustainable design and thoughtful landscaping
WINNER BEST SELF-BUILD
Sponsored by Self-Build Zone
HOMEOWNERS Duncan and Anaya Bush
LOCATION Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire
SIZE 180m2
BUILD ROUTE Self project managed with subcontractors
CONSTRUCTION Timber frame, built to Passivhaus standard
BUILD TIME 14 months HOUSE/PLOT COST £450,000
BUILD COST House: £650,000; Landscaping and driveway: £180,000
VALUE £1.5m
WORDS Seán O’Connell PHOTOGRAPHY Juliet Murphy
With their children having left home, Duncan and Anaya Bush were in a position to move to the village of Aspley Guise near Woburn in Bedfordshire —an area they both loved. They initially had ideas of buying a renovation project but chose to go all out for a self-build and subsequently began their search for likely plots.
“We decided to look for bungalows as they often have larger plots —a garden and inside/out connection was important for us,” says Duncan. “Also, we wanted to avoid the conservation zones in the area and knew that getting planning for building on an existing plot would be easier.”
Having found an aging bungalow that was ripe for demolition, they sold their house to help fund the project and moved into rented accomodation. The couple opted to tackle the project on two simultaneous fronts —the house build and the landscaping. Given that landscaping is all too often an afterthought in the housebuilding process, what prompted the pair to give this aspect equal importance?
“With the wellbeing of the whole space in mind, we wanted a real connection between inside and outside,” says Duncan. “This approach offered practical benefits, too. The land at the back needed levelling but the house is quite a narrow plot so once the house was built it would have been difficult to have got heavy machinery in there.”
FORWARD PLANNING
At the same time as formulating plans for the surrounding land with Marcus Green Design, Duncan and Anaya were working
closely with Charlie Luxton Design to create ahouse that met their exacting demands for space, style and sustainability. “As empty nesters,” says Duncan, “we viewed this as the chance to build ahome for the next half of our lives —somewhere that allowed us to
