GREEN NEW BUILD
When the time came to downsize, Graham and Charlotte Thompson built their dream eco-friendly house in the garden of their New Forest home
HOMEOWNERS Graham and Charlotte Thompson
LOCATION New Forest
PROJECT Replacement new build plus one bedroom annexe in garden
CONSTRUCTION Thermal mass masonry and triple glazing, with zinc and sedum roofs
BUILD ROUTE Architect, plus main contractor
SIZE 143sq m
BUILD TIME July 2018 – Aug 2019
A large country home in the New Forest would certainly be most people’s idea of a dream home, yet after 27 years, Graham and Charlotte Thompson felt they should sell up and let another family enjoy the property. “We needed a smaller space, the kids had grown and it was expensive to maintain,” says Graham. There were other factors, too. “The carbon footprint of the house was large, and to get it to lowenergy status would have been very expensive.”
Fortunately, the house benefited from having a small disused cottage in the grounds. Instead of renovating it, the couple decided instead to replace it with a new build that would be more environmentally friendly.
A SUSTAINABLE START
Inspired by afriend who has some experience of self-building, the couple approached an architect, only to be disheartened by the opinion they were unlikely to gain planning permission. Then Charlotte saw aproperty they both loved on the website of PAD Studio Architects.
“It opened our eyes as to what was possible,” says Graham. This began a terrific partnership with PAD Studio, and a brief emerged for a compact home to replace their old cottage with minimal energy use and upkeep, and strong connections to the garden and landscape beyond.
Achieving planning permission remained the key challenge, however, with the couple’s first application declined.
Undeterred, Graham and Charlotte, accompanied by their architect, returned to their local planning department for a series of meetings in the hope of finding a solution. “I think we were lucky in that the planners were keen to help us do this,” says Graham. “Fortunately, our second application passed, as it was so well designed and low energy, and also because we were actually going to live in it.”
A MODERN APPROACH
The result is acontemporary brick home, which, while being single storey, ‘unfolds’ down the sloping site across several levels. The two bedrooms in the main house are complemented by a one-bedroom detached guest annexe, which is perfect for when friends and family visit.
