Highways

Highways is a contemporary 4-bedroom eco house situated on the outskirts of Winchester.

The new L shaped building form encloses and protects a private garden to the west of the site. This was done by positioning the 2-storey element along the eastern boundary to shield the garden from the road noise. A single storey kitchen / dining room projects to the west and serves to enclose the garden and link the internal living spaces with the garden.

The project adopts an innovative building method called ICF or Insitu concrete formwork. This is a system of hollow insulated blocks which and clipped together and filled with concrete. The resulting building is quick to build and very thermally efficient and airtight. The ICF also lends itself Highways as it is ideal for basement wall construction.

The materials chosen for the project are flint stone walling, grey facing brickwork and render for the ground floor, and dark stained timber cladding for the first floor. This creates a strong and robust finish which expresses the first-floor volume which visually floats above the robust stone and brick base. Vertical cladding was chosen to echo the adjacent woodland.