Rural Retrofit: Reimagining Historic Homes Fit for the Future

We work with a variety of inspiring and environmentally conscientious clients who help us push the status-quo of the construction industry. These clients all approach us with the question: ‘what’s the most planet-friendly way of building my home?’, and quite often the answer is simple: don’t build at all!

In our Devon office, we’ve been working with just such a client. Instead of building a house from scratch or extending the floor plan into the hills, they’ve chosen to work with us to retrofit their existing 1950s bungalow. The aim: to transform a leaking, outdated structure into a sustainable, beautiful and unique home that’s perfect for contemporary living.

Working closely with the structural engineer, we celebrated the existing southern aspect by reconfiguring the ground floor to create a contemporary open-plan kitchen-dining-living space which overlooks the estuary below. Along with this, we rearranged the entrance sequence to create a line of sight through the house, and made use of the large empty loft space to establish vaulted bedrooms.

Externally, we took the same approach. Instead of stripping away the existing stone cladding to apply external wall insulation (which would have been considerably wasteful, labour intensive and expensive), we decided to repoint the stone with lime-render to give it new life. We continued this trend as we sought to reimagine the quality of ‘arts-and-crafts'-esque facade re-using existing materials in a contemporary fashion.

Inefficient windows and doors will be replaced with triple-glazing. Mineral wool insulation to walls, floor and roof will improve the fabric U-values. Replacement membranes and tape will improve air-tightness. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) and an air source heat pump (ASHP) will make ventilation and heating significantly more efficient; and solar panels will provide a surplus of energy for the house.

Once completed, these design moves will not only meet the client’s current needs but also ensure the home remains sustainable for future generations—all without increasing the house's footprint. 

So when thinking about your home or working with an Architect, be imaginative! What good can you do with what you already have?