Project Type: Self build, New build, Eco-Friendly
Location: Medomsley Village, County Durham
Status: In Progress

The parents of the client had once dreamt of their own bespoke house on their land but time and time again the plans were rejected by the council. Eventually the dream died.With the same fire burning PWS was approached by the client to see if there was any way to overcome these past issues and achieve a dream that now spanned two generations.

The brief was to create a family home with; three beds, a large family space for entertaining as well as a separate private family space for more intimate moments. The orientation, plan and elevational features of the house were designed to best make use of the vistas the site was afforded, the master bedroom and the kitchen, living and dining space were directed at these views with large spans of glass to let light in and allow a view out. The smaller snug room and office were positioned at the opposing side as these would not likely be heavily inhabited rooms especially during the daytime.

Designed to look as though the main body of the house was existing and had been renovated and extended with a modern highly glazed intervention it sits within its context of brick and render buildings. The family/ house name is reflected in the colour motif throughout the build’s materiality choices.The scheme makes use of some eco - friendly features such as a ground source heat pump, to heat the underfloor heating and water system, lowering the dwellings reliance on fossil fuels. As well as a solar array to lessen the impact upon the environment from electricity usage.

This project sparked the creation of PWS and is the first to proudly sport the logo on its drawings, although planning was quite simple to attain, ironicically, there were many obstacles which needed to be carefully considered. The house stands in the conservation area of Medomsley village as well it struggles with; access, green field status, flooding AND to top it off the site is part of a former mining area and sits on and near many coal seams.