The climate crisis, pandemic and rapid changes in technology have changed the way we live forever. The typical family home with a living room orientated around a television, with bedrooms above is no longer relevant to the way we live, work, and relax. The Off Grid Jewel rethinks the home with changing lifestyles over the next decade in mind. While the design is organised as a four-bedroom house, it creates six different opportunities for home working. This includes dedicated spaces in each bedroom, a separate home office and an integrated workspace in the living room.
The proposal takes a fabric first approach via significant insulation throughout the envelope. The entire building is clad in an integrated solar panel rainscreen and utilises an Air Source Heat Pump with underfloor heating. In the summer months, overhangs to the ground floor terraces protect from overheating. Opening windows across each elevation create ample opportunities for cross ventilation. During winter, the lower angle of the sun penetrates deep into the ground floor with rising heat keeping the living space warm. Dormer windows across each elevation allow generous daylight throughout the day to create a delightful living space with a dramatic faceted roof above.
The Off Grid Jewel takes a classical approach of hyper logical plan and section and offsets this against a contemporary brief of climate demands and working from home alongside advances in digital technology. It develops the typical vernacular of a pitched roof house in the countryside with a rationality toward form, proportion, structure and daylight, while pushing the use of everyday materials to create joyful compositions.
