Contemporary eco-friendly self-build, Cornwall

Winner of the Reader's Choice Award: Contemporary Self-build Category

Gail and David formed a separate plot in the garden of their former home in an exclusive part of Cornwall and have built a light-filled, contemporary energy-efficient home with great views and which suits their needs perfectly. The site posed many difficulties for the owners, not least having to stabilise an unsafe rock wall with metal pins at the rear of the site, and drilling two 75m boreholes into the underlying rock. Gail and David found it a great retirement project, incorporating many energy-efficient measures from triple glazing to an ingenious imported system that recovers the heat from waste shower water and reuses it to heat the home. The project cost £640,000 (£3,282/m²) and took 13 months.


 

Contemporary eco-friendly self-build, Cornwall

 

Tweets On This Property

"Engineering is becoming ever more important in modern homes and Gail and David’s approach has been to create a home that performs exceptionally well for their retirement, and shows a real passion for the way homes work."

Jason Orme, Editor of Homebuilding & Renovating magazine

"Far too good a view to ignore, the designer overcame the potential energy loss of the northerly aspect by incorporating triple glazing and window and door frames capable of dealing with high winds."

Michael Holmes, Editor-in-Chief of Homebuilding & Renovating, Period Living and Real Homes magazines

"Interesting contemporary design. Divine views over surfing beach. Excellent open plan upstairs and balcony. Rather pricey due to site."

Peter Harris, Managing Director of Centaur Special Interest Media

"The architecture hardly matters when you can just sit next to the top-floor picture window and watch surfers catching waves all day."

Angela Pertusini, former Editor of The Daily Telegraph’s award-winning Property section

These are the judges' opinions - share your thoughts in our discussion forum.

 

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