O·fordshire 乡村住宅丨英国牛津丨Charlie Luxton Design

Architect：Charlie Luxton Design

Location：Oxfordshire, UK; | ;View Map

Project Year：2018

Category：Private Houses

The outskirts of many British villages grew rapidly in the 1960ties, due to changes in urban design regulations, resulting in a large number of good plots with outdated, mostly singlestorey buildings entering the market over the past few years.

While most of the new owners tear down the houses and start from scratch, some embrace a more environmentally conscious approach during the process.

Such was the case with the clients of Charlie Luxton Design, who approached the office after purchasing a piece of land in the Cotswolds have imagined building an entirely new house. But Charlie Luxton – in line with his belief to do architecture in an environmentally conscious

way – persuaded them to use at least the existing foundations. Charlie Luxton is one of the most widely known young architectural designers in Great Britain thanks to appearing on various TV shows, among them “Building the Dream”, in which

he helps people build their dream homes. He is advocating for an eco-friendly approach to architectural designerure on all scales and in various fields of architectural designerure. Having have built – partially with his own hands - a house for himself and his family, he learned a lot about how to achieve beautiful, ecological design while keeping the investment costs low.

“The decision to keep the foundations and the “skeleton” of the house set restraints on the design. The walls were covered with a thick layer of outside insulation, clad with local stone. An additional floor, supported on the existing foundations, with a metal roof, extended the living area. In the planned second project phase, a garage will be refurbished, pergola extended and the gas boiler replaced with a ground pump. I am looking forward to going back to complete the scheme.”

Although the building seduces with its straight forward beauty, Charlie Luxton, asked about the design, talks about lowering the carbon emissions and natural ventilation. “It’s a great, breezy site, which is great for cross-ventilation of the house. We did a window above the kitchen, high in the roof, through which the high-level heat leaves the house. The pergola on the south is the place to sit on hot summer days; one can easily add more louvres, should they be needed.”. One of the essential points in avoiding overheating is good roof insulation; Lamorna’s wellinsulated tin roof does not let the heat into the structure of the house.

A fascinating insight in Charlie Luxton Design strategies on how do build ecologically conscious can be found on the office's website. Although lightly written, the texts are full of precise information enlighting for both architects and future clients. The question about what is a good insulation is answered witty and on the point: " We ask ourselves a simple question when specifying insulation, ‘Would we eat our dinner off it’! If you’d be happy to use the material the insulation is made from as crockery, then it’s probably fine. Materials such as mineral wool, glass fibre, wood fibre, polystyrene and ceramics are all simple products whose raw materials would be fine for a plate!"

Charlie Luxton

Charlie Luxton

– jokes Charlie Luxton before changing to a more serious tone to describe the beauty of daylight and the importance of a differentiated, well thought through use of openings:

Charlie Luxton

Charlie Luxton

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