Clungunford Lifetime Home Gets Planning
We're delighted that our Passivhaus-principles project in Clungunford, South Shropshire, has been granted planning permission, and we are able to move this scheme into the next stage.
The Lifetime Home is a demonstration of forward-thinking design. When our clients approached us, they were conscious that they wanted to build a home they could stay in comfortably for many years to come. With a professional background in nursing and residential care, they are acutely aware that many people enter residential care due to the unsuitability of their homes to support them rather than for health needs. With this in mind, the project has been developed with independent living, adaptability and sustainability at its core to provide them with a forever home.
Combining the principles of Passivhaus construction with a keen eye for aesthetics, we have designed a home that seamlessly integrates into its surroundings while prioritising energy efficiency and occupant comfort.
The new building will be accessible and flexible, with living and outdoor spaces laid out on permaculture principles, locating the most frequently used spaces within close proximity of each other and radiating less frequently used spaces out from this point.
We have developed the courtyard plan to create a house that surrounds a series of outside spaces, including a central courtyard garden. A linear structure forms the arrival area, with a carport, workshop and equipment store. These spaces link through to the southern garden space and create a covered arrival route from the car to the front door, with space for storing boots and bins. The kitchen and dining room opens up to the courtyard, as well as the garden to the South. This wing is linked to the more private eastern bedroom wing by the south facing living spaces. The central courtyard is bounded by a low-level wall to the south.
The current design is informed by the traditional farmsteads the clients enjoy visiting. Playing with the traditional courtyard house, we've pulled apart the key living spaces around external growing spaces.
The proposed dwelling has a simple form redolent of agricultural architecture, using simple pitched roofs and contextual materials such as timber and metal sheet cladding and render. The external envelope will be clad mostly in timber with the courtyard facing elevations picked up in render to emphasises the slightly more intimate and domestic character of this area.
Elsewhere, the timber frontages will soften the building and help to integrate it into a context of ancillary timber structures. The roof will be finished in a profiled metal sheeting that will add to its rural/agricultural character. The Aluminium/ timber composite windows have thermally broken frames and glazed units. The frames will be coloured to match the profiled metal roofing. Connections to the landscape and views over the immediate landscape are key, with picture windows within the proposal that enable the appreciation of the surrounding wildlife and proposed biodiverse landscape.
The client’s brief includes designing the landscape on permaculture principles; with an accessible growing garden within close proximity to the kitchen. As the landscape extends out to the site boundary, it will become more wild and less refined, bounded by a new native hedgerow around the perimeter of the plot.
Beyond its architectural significance, the project also holds broader implications for the way we approach development, whilst being mindful of an ageing population. As we grapple with the challenges of climate change and rapid urbanisation, projects like the Lifetime Home offer a blueprint for creating resilient, liveable communities that prioritise the long-term well-being of both people and the planet.