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Among various other awards he has won in his work for Associated Architects, John Christophers has been fêted for the Cobtun House outside Worcester, using a startling mix of ancient and modern materials to create a low-carbon home which sits perfectly in its landscape.
The Cobtun House, winner of the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Sustainability Award and the RIBA Architecture Award of 2005, is also featured on the Channel 4 website. And it won the Worcester City Design Award of 2003.
The client for the the Cobtun House gave this cryptic brief for the design:
Humour, Mystery, Fantasy
Ecological, Sustainable, Independent
Contextual, Agricultural, Invisible
One of the exciting things about the house is the total contrast between the ‘front’ and the ‘back’: you enter the house through a door in an earth wall facing north, which stores a lot of heat, while the glazed south face of the house captures the sun.
There is a detailed description of the house in the Architects’ Journal.
The Centre for Earthen Architecture at the University of Plymouth has this to say about building with earth:
Earth…
… balances the air humidity
… stores heat
… saves energy and reduces environmental pollution
… is reusable
… saves material and transportation costs
… uses low technology
… is ideal for self-help construction
… preserves timber and other organic materials
… absorbs pollutants
… maintains local distinctiveness
… continues traditional building skills.
Congratulations John
Salwa Abu Salem
Palestine
I’ve just seen a news story about the zero carbon house in B’ham. It is distinctly ugly isn’t it. I don’t know whether you people know anything about how people respond to different types of building design but there is plenty of evidence to show clearly that people don’t get used to or like certain building styles and have natural and inbuilt preferences for having things around them look a certain way. Not only is the zero carbon house inherently ugly in itself it clashes horribly with the rest of the buildings in the street. The zero carbon house would be exceedingly ugly even if it were situated in a street of similar buildings but having it situated in a street of traditional terraced houses is seriously compounding the aesthetic crime.
The people who granted planning permission for the design should be dismissed forthwith. The interior of the house is also particularly ugly and generally lacks warmth and homliness.
The only positive thing about the house is its energy saving features and you don’t have to make a building that is inherently ugly and looks completely out of place making it even uglier in its setting in order for it to be energy efficient.
Best wishes,
Pat Davy.