Loyn & Co’s sustainable, partly-buried house in the Forest of Dean

Photos
Charles Hosea

Outhouse by Loyn & Co Architects is a sustainable dwelling for two artists located in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. The hillside site provides panoramic views of the Wye Valley to the south, and is bordered by Offa’s Dyke to the west. The brief was to create a site-specific live-work house incorporating a pair of artist’s studios and a gallery space to display the clients’ art collection and treasured belongings.

A green roof allows the low-lying house to blend into the natural landscape

Replacing an existing dwelling, the single-storey structure is cut into the sloping site and partly buried to create an ‘earth shelter’. Conceived as a continuation of the existing field, a green roof connects the house with its surroundings, while also ensuring high-levels of insulation. The internal accommodation is organised around a central gallery space and a series of sheltered courtyards tracing the footprint of the previous dwelling. Set into the hillside, the artists’ studios are located on the north side of the plan and are naturally-lit by large rooflights.

The house’s retaining walls are constructed from in-situ concrete with a high percentage of GGBS (ground-granulated blast-furnace slag). Highly insulated steel and timber cladding panels are employed elsewhere in conjunction with triple-glazed windows.

The scheme complies with lifetime homes criteria and has an EPC of 96/100. Among the sustainable technologies utilised are whole-house ventilation, ground-source heating, solar thermal and photovoltaic panels. The latter provide 5.13 KWP. An airtightness figure of 0.49 (m³/hr/m²)@50Pa outperforms current Passivhaus standards.

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