The Building Research Establishment offered a site at its Garston headquarters, housebuilder Wilcon Homes took up the challenge as lead contractor and together we begged the materials, equipment and manpower.
Design criteria
The architectural team was led by Cole Thompson Associates, supported by Bree Day Partnership and Paul Hodgkins Associates, the four key individuals being project architect Craig Anders, Damian Bree, Tim Day and Paul Hodgkins. An original design, the Integer Millennium House, had been drawn up without reference to any site as a 25th-scale model for the DTI's UK Now exhibition in Melbourne in November 1997. This was adapted to suit the Garston site, taking into account the context, orientation, trees and contours.
General design criteria had already been defined over 18-months of research and consultation which called for a house that was mainstream, robust, adaptable, sustainable, cost-effective and desirable.
It was to be a demonstration unit of successful ideas and technologies – not an experiment. It had to last at least 60 years, require minimal maintenance and have low running costs. It had to be comfortable, attractive, spacious, and capable of change and adaptation in terms of space, systems and equipment. "Flexibility empowers the occupants of Integer houses to make interior adjustments to suit their family needs and lifestyle," stresses Tim Day.
Most of all though, it had to be popular.
Adaptable and contemporary
We wanted to address social issues such as home-working, disability and care in the home, all of which are driven by social change and are reflected in the house's form, construction and internal information infrastructure. We tested ideas on these aspects in discussion with our social housing partners and groups such as Help the Aged and Health & Housing.
Increasingly we need to cater for non-nuclear family structures – smaller family units, those needing to work at home and the disabled. Shouldn't every house be capable of easy adaptation to suit these needs? With the possibilities offered by teleworking, telemedicine, home shopping and home education, why don't our houses have the infrastructure to allow for more effective communications?
Three innovation drivers
Three main technological issues drove the design concept of the Integer house – innovative construction, use of intelligent technologies and environmental techniques. On the construction side, we concentrated on buildability, using lightweight materials and prefabrication to deliver better value, more consistent quality and faster construction.
We incorporated an IT infrastructure with networked cabling in fully accessible ducts letting householders tailor the systems to suit their needs.
On the environmental side, we focused on energy and water conservation and use of sustainable materials.
Many concept houses are styling exercises that have very little impact on the market. However, the Integer house is unpretentious, direct and cost-effective. While many aspects of the design, specification and construction were innovative and radical, the appearance of the house, although different from most others, is somehow reassuringly familiar.
Space planning
The site slopes gently towards the west. We decided to dig into the slope and use the spoil to backfill around the lower ground floor to allow for level access at the rear to a lower ground floor and at the front to an upper ground floor.
The house was then planned on three levels. Bedrooms were allocated to the lower floor within the semi-basement to provide a cool environment, direct access to the glasshouse and a level escape. Living rooms on the upper ground floor benefit from heat rising from below to provide a slightly warmer environment, as well as from more natural daylight and better views. A home office on the top floor within the roofspace shows how the basic house might be expanded upwards. There are no trussed rafters, just clear roof spans, so the whole roofspace is available for use as living space or storage.
The glasshouse encloses the whole structure on its south-west side and provides a two-storey conservatory with a solar space on the top floor next to the office. The glazed area also doubles usable floor area at a fraction of the costs of conventional construction and can be enjoyed in comfort for most of the year. It makes use of roofspace wasted in ordinary houses. It is a single-glazed structure providing a tempered space, neither indoors nor outdoors. It has automatically controlled opening vents and shading blinds responding to solar and temperature changes. This space forms a buffer to the rear of the building and produces a warm microclimate for seven or eight months of the year. As Paul Hodgkins says, "The glasshouse provides the climate of Bordeaux in London". But it also acts as a sound buffer, cutting out most of the noise from the nearby M1 motorway.
Service areas such as the kitchen, utility rooms and bathrooms were grouped at the front (north-west) side of the house, with cable ducts, pipe ducts and plant spaces designed for ease of installation and maintenance. Living rooms and bedrooms were arranged on the rear (south-west) side of the house and were essentially open-plan spaces that could be divided up at will with partitions to provide alternative room arrangements.
We wanted the house to have a definite front and rear. From the front it appears as a single-storey structure sheltered under the deep eaves of a turf roof. For privacy, security and energy reasons, windows are relatively small on this side. From the rear it appears as a three-storey glass structure opening out into the garden and taking advantage of the views, light and sunshine. The garden slopes down towards the back of the site following this split-level arrangement and creates a protective bowl surrounding a sun-trap terrace.
Factory built for speed and quality
Off-site fabrication replaced time-consuming wet trades wherever possible. Precast concrete construction was used for lower-ground-floor slab and semi-basement. Timber panel construction was used for the superstructure. The bathrooms were delivered to site as completed timber-framed rooms – with sanitaryware, plumbing, electrics, tiling, cupboards and finishes fully installed, providing quality control and faster construction. Activity on site focused on assembly rather than fabrication.
The house is "future-proofed". Removable timber skirtings allow for access to the main cable routes, should they need to be upgraded. A service void behind the plasterboard internal wall surfaces allows extra switches and sockets to be added without damaging the building fabric.
Materials such as the Western Red Cedar cladding were selected for sustainability, low-embodied energy, long life and low maintenance. The sedum roof contributes to a cleaner atmosphere and provides an attractive, low-maintenance, natural alternative to conventional roof materials. But we also used standard components wherever possible –windows were off-the-peg stained softwood joinery.
Now tell us what you think
Now the BBC has introduced the design to millions of viewers it is time for consumers to tell us their views by responding to our web site questionnaire at www.iandi.ltd.uk. We will then be able to modify future designs and influence decision-makers to provide the homes people really want.
Source
Building Homes
