Project: Devon Passivhaus
Architecture and Interior Design: McLean Quinlan Architects
Structural Engineer: Tribus, Airey and Coles
Contractor: Goulden and Sons
Location: Devon, United Kingdom
Year 2019
Photo Credits: Jim Stephenson
Text by McLean Quinlan Architects
Planning for this project was won under Paragraph 79, the Country House Clause, with a design taking inspiration from the surroundings.
The overall design is simple and clean. An elegant brick front complements the brickwork of the old garden wall and a discrete front door opening references the gate in the garden wall. Further down, an oriel window breaks through, hinting at what is behind. Elsewhere, external surfaces are dark render, designed to recede visually in deference to the surrounding garden.
Tucked within, the Devon Passivhaus has a glass roofed courtyard at its centre, a winter garden flooding light into the interior. Spaces are arranged around this central core so the building functions both as a home and a gallery for our clients, great collectors of pottery and art, with spaces to display and curate.
Comfortable and serene interior spaces are punctuated with tactile and textured materials: reclaimed terracotta, rough sawn oak and clay plaster, to ensure that internally the building feels connected to the garden that inspired it.
The footprint and walls of the original garden inform the design of the house, the landscape is replanted, and historic paths have been re-established.
The house is certified Passivhaus, and includes air source heating, MVHR, solar power, battery storage, super-insulation and triple-glazing throughout, to provide over 100% of required energy.
“We chose McLean Quinlan partly because their practice is focused on individual homes, but mostly because we very much liked their simple but elegant design approach and their use of a limited palette of natural materials.
It was our first experience of working directly with architects to build our own home and they made it very straightforward and creative for us. We were made to feel very much a part of the design team”— Client
