The New Country House, Paragraph 84

Parsonage Barn, a New Country House under the Paragraph 84 act sits in the South Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and has been designed to link the building to the surrounding national park landscape. Referred to as exemplary by the Design South East Review panel …

“The Panel believed this was an exceptional proposal worthy of an approval within the definition of paragraph 55…”

The proposed design was not arrived at through the typical and established way of creating a house. Working with Professor Doug King, Eckersley O’ Callaghan, Terra Firma and Rob Hughes, it was a true inter-disciplinary collaboration between the study of structure, environment, landscape and architecture, working together to meet an identified need.

 

Project & Environmental Data

Project Info

  • Location: South Downs National Park
  • Cost: £2.2 million
  • Designation: National Park, Area of Outstanding Beauty
  • Collaborators: Hughes Plannning, Eckersley O'callaghan,Doug King
  • Image Credit: Darc Studio

Environmental Data

  • Heating/Hot Water
    Electric Gas Ground Source Air Source
  • Solar Thermal
    Yes No
  • Rain Water Harvest
    Yes No
  • Ventilation
    MVHR Natural
  • Energy Storage
    Yes No
Concept sketch blending house into landscape

Originally designed under the Paragraph 55 definition the 300m2 scheme, is our first Paragraph 84 (formerly Paragraph 80, 79, 55 and PPS7) scheme and was
Parsonage Barn is positioned within a unique Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The landscape is dominated by geology in the form of the South Downs Hills.
Many of the buildings surrounding the site have a strong physical connection to the geology of this area through their use of the vernacular building material, flint. They are formed from the very stuff of the earth, materials which have stood the test of time.

As our clients approach retirement they identified that their living requirements were changing – they the wished for a home in which they could live comfortably and sustainably for the next 20-30 years. The architectural design is innovative - a direct response to the landscape in which it is sited, not only in form, but in the interpretation and display of the vernacular language of the area, realised through a contemporary architectural proposal.

“Overall, the Panel felt that the proposal had passed the point of justification in relation to Paragraph 55. The architectural intent, its response to the setting and the construction and sustainability proposals together had the promise of an exemplary scheme designed for a very particular context. The Panel congratulated the team of the intellectual input, the sensitivity of approach and the compositional skill. The Panel believed this was an exceptional proposal worthy of an approval within the definition of paragraph 55…"

. . . South Downs Review Panel . . .

"The home is designed to be zero carbon in use and will be built using low embodied carbon building materials and construction methods."

. . . The Architect’s Journal . . .