News for January 2003

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Hockerton inspires further green housing

HHP has provided the inspiration behind Bath’s first energy-friendly eco-home. The building planned for land overlooking Horsecombe Vale will be covered with earth and almost impossible to see from above. Following a visit to HHP by the landowner a couple of years ago, HHP project member Nick Martin went down to Bath to offer advice and guidance on the proposed earth-sheltered home. Built into the hillside, it is designed to blend into its local environment. Like the Hockerton homes, most of the heating for the home will be from passive solar gain and retained by very high insulation. A reed bed will deal with sewage waste, and local wildlife encouraged. Bath & North East Somerset Council granted planning permission, despite the land being in the green belt. The landowner Celia Hutton said: “it would be a criminal waste of a site not to put a green house there” One supportive Cllr noted that he hoped that the plans would inspire more people to think environmentally.

HHP has also provided inspiration for another earth sheltered home built last year in Cumbria, and currently one of the subject’s of Channel 4's Grand Designs programme (Wednesday evenings, starting on February 12 2003). The earth-sheltered house was built in an old, disused quarry site in the east of Cumbria. The project to build the house started in April 2002 and the occupants moved in just over six months later in the first part of October. The site also includes a farm animal veterinary workspace. The house has been built into the hole created by the quarry space, making invisible from behind and with only a glass front and some photovoltaic tiles being seen from the front. The house is surrounded by 350 million year old sandstone on four sides, and by soil above. The house is warm, quiet, and full of light and air. The veterinary workspace is adjacent to the road but is cut back into the hillside, and it too is covered with earth, although the wall to the road is conventional in being faced with stone. Both buildings now have grass starting to grow on their roofs and are beginning to merge back into the softness of this ancient landscape. For more information see http://www.theundergroundhouse.org.uk/.

The business part of HHP has been offering advice on sustainable construction to developers and self-builders for over five years. These vary from earth-sheltered to ultra low energy designs, and from single units to larger schemes. HHP offers a range of consultancy services to assist designers and others planning more sustainable developments. Please see http://www.hockerton.demon.co.uk/productsservices/consultancy.html for more information about these services or contact us direct via telephone or email. Currently one of the project members, Nick Martin, is leading the design and build of several eco-builds in the Nottinghamshire area.

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