strathbungo

Having deeply held concerns about the impact of climate change the clients, a doctor and a wind farm engineer, decided to use the refurbishment of their inter-war terraced house as an opportunity to reduce their domestic carbon footprint and, at the same time, create a beautiful home for their young family. The challenge was to open up the house to the south facing garden and, at the same time, reduce the heating demand to a level that the house could be kept warm with just two clean-burn wood burning stoves and/or an air source heat pump.

When the client acquired this 1929 end of terrace house in Glasgow's fashionable Strathbungo neighbourhood it was in need of full refurbishment. The basement rooms had low ceilings and were dark, and the stair to an unofficial attic conversion cut into the main bedroom. 

The solution was a deep refurbishment. The rear of the house was completely remodelled with a new split level kitchen and family room in a light filled extension opening onto the back garden. The rest of the house was completely re-insulated with a combination of internal and external insulation following ‘Passivhaus’ principles. Triple glazed Scandinavian windows replaced the old rotted timber ones and air leakage was significantly reduced. The south facing family room captures solar gain that is circulated through the house using a heat recovery ventilation system in that provides a constant flow of filtered fresh air at an ambient temperature. The basement was made waterproof with new windows to form a utility room and bicycle workshop to the front . Water is heated by rooftop solar panels.

Credits:

Architect: Network Five Architecture (Donald Bentley)

Structure: Grossart Associates

Ventilation: KVentilation (Klaus Schultze)

Contractor: Self-Build

Photography: Paul Tyagi