Zero Carbon House, Birmingham UK

A modern design in sympathy with the surrounding architecture

The design doubles the size of the existing house by extending sideways into the gap between two houses. The new addition rises two floors plus a studio loft beneath the solar roof. To achieve the zero carbon aim, this meets most of the house’s energy needs with photovoltaic and hot water panels at the required height, pitch and orientation to avoid overshadowing. The ground floor provides open-plan kitchen, living and dining areas which flow through the existing and new construction to give a variety of different spaces, including a tall top-lit living room. All these spaces are connected to the garden via an unheated, glazed, double-height “sunspace”. This is angled for useful winter solar gains, while a mature ash tree shades the glass in summer. An internal garage retains the secure off-road parking space.

A top-lit central stair is compressed between existing brickwork and new curved walls of textured earth construction. The first floor has a study and three bedrooms, two of which have shuttered openings overlooking the double height living area. The top floor is a single top-lit studio space. A projecting dormer on the street frontage frames the wide view north to the city centre and forms a marker in the street scene. Its position visually anchors the curved stair enclosure and forms a bookend to the untouched slate roof of the existing house.

On the street elevation, the dormer helps to bridge the step in existing roof height between this house and the next one on the south side.

From the planning application

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