Modern low-carbon Thatch House sees planning approved

Thatch House, in rural North Dorset, is a family home inspired by traditional thatch designs of Dorset.

Designers, Studio Bark, have 'taken cues from the local vernacular to focus on a combination of traditional features and crafts as well as modern building systems'.

A CGI mock-up of Thatch House (Image: Studio Bark)

In keeping with the traditional design based off thatched houses in Dorset, the home will be using locally-sourced materials, with 70 per cent sourced within a 50-mile radius. Less than 10 per cent of the materials are sourced overseas, and the home will use no concrete in construction.

The house achieved planning permission via Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework, 'the country house clause.'

Prefabricated straw-insulation wall panels have been proposed for the walls, assembled using flying factories.

A layered view of designs to Thatch House (Image: Studio Bark)

A concrete-free construction is enabling the developers to use screw pile foundations to raise the ground floor, to sit the house on the landscape.

In a bid to improve biodiversity on the site, a habitat wall will integrate bird nesting opportunities in the north side, with chimney-like elements providing bat roosts.

An area for growing food has also been incorporated into designs. 

The senior planning officer for Dorset Council, said: “The building, without being unduly prominent or architecturally dramatic, has an abundance of character and will likely become a positive local feature which will enhance the site and its immediate landscape setting in addition to encouraging and improving the standards for development in the future.

"This is not intended to be a building making a grand statement or clamouring for attention. It will sit relatively quietly within a framework of trees and hedgerows and open meadows.

"In this way, the architecture is responding to the almost self-contained nature of the site and will intentionally limit its impact on the wider Landscape. For these reasons, it is considered the proposals do meet the exceptional criteria required by paragraph 84 of the NPPF 2023.”

Studio Bark founder, Steph Chadwick, said: “Taking cues from the local vernacular, Thatch House brings together traditional building techniques with modern low-impact building solutions.

“The result is a contemporary, low-carbon home that sits comfortably within its built and natural character.

“We believe this approach to materiality and building performance to be the standard required for buildings during a time when issues around the built environment and climate are so prevalent.

“We see this home as an exemplar in low energy design that genuinely limits its impact in all stages of its life.”