Weald House: an award-winning timber-frame home near Keymer

The brief

The client wanted a five-bedroom home on underused parkland next to their own house, with high ambitions for energy use and environmental impact. New homes in open countryside are only allowed in special cases, and Weald House was approved under what was then Paragraph 55 of the National Planning Policy Framework, which asks for design of exceptional quality.

Ecotecture drew the planning scheme, and Morgan Carn Architects were the executive architects. The site slopes gently to the south, which made the groundworks tricky, and the roof is a complex folded design in zinc.

Julian’s role

Julian started as site manager when the site was still a field, and stayed in the role until the client needed no further help. He ran the site and coordinated the trades. Eleven contractors and specialists are credited on the award, from the groundworks to the home automation.

Getting the frame right

Part of the timber frame had to come down and be rebuilt. From then on, every panel was set out with jigs made on site, and the frame has stayed true.

Airtightness got the same care. Inside the frame, an Intello membrane forms the airtight layer, with the pipes through it taped and sealed. When the house was air tested in June 2020, it measured 0.52 air changes an hour at the standard test pressure of 50 pascals, inside the Passivhaus limit of 0.6. The house is heated by electric boilers running off a 40-panel solar array, with Sunamp heat batteries storing the heat until it’s needed.

A site where ideas count

Julian asked every trade on site for ideas on how to do the job better, and most of them were taken up. It’s the way Tidal Drift runs its sites today, on new builds and self-builds across Sussex.