Bringing the outdoors indoors’ architects win Actis award at annual STA event

A London architectural practice has won an Actis-sponsored award for a house it created in Tottenham which melds the natural environment with the inside of the property.

The Custom and Self-Build Project of the Year Award was one of a number of prizes presented during the annual Structural Timber Association Awards ceremony this month at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham.

The awards celebrate what can be achieved using the most natural and sustainable of materials.

Actis, which has sponsored the awards for a number of years, is keen to champion the work of designers who create individual, dramatic but crucially environmentally-friendly buildings.

The award was presented to architects from Hayhurst and Co by Actis regional sales director and Women in Construction ambassador Jemma Harris.

Their project, Green House, on a small back lane in a conservation area in North London is built on land previously occupied by coach houses, orchards, greenhouses and market gardens. The architects describe it as ‘a contemporary re-imagining of a domestic greenhouse’ which draws on the natural history and verdant character of the site, blurring the boundaries between inside and outside spaces, re-greening a once-unloved site.

A central atrium connects the living spaces, bringing daylight into the heart of the house and cooling it on hot days through natural stack ventilation, with solar glass windows fitted with temperature and rain sensors.

The simple ‘block’ form of the house was chosen for its simplicity and efficient use of the cross-laminated timber frame, it is heated via an air source heat pump, has PVs on the roof and achieves 29 kWh/m2/year and 410 kgCO2/m2 over the building lifecycle - well below RIBA Climate Challenge 2030 targets.