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Project Details:

Location: Cheshire, United Kingdom

Architect: Studio Bark / @studiobark

Footprint: 1,840 square feet

Structural Engineer: Structure Workshop

Ecology Consultant: Solum Environmental

Aboricultural Consultant: TEP

Photographer: Jim Stephenson / @clickclickjim

From the Architect: “Built for an environmentally conscious young family, the home sits on the site of a former orchard with deep personal roots. The design was shaped by the client’s memories of helping grandparents pick fruit and run the orchard’s machinery, a working landscape rich with seasonal rhythms. Four decades on, the orchard has been replanted with local species and is once again thriving. The family are now fully at home in a modest, highly tailored dwelling, one that supports everyday life while remaining deeply connected to the land.

“From the outset, the design was shaped by the site. Two living ‘cubes’ with inset terraces frame the key views: eastward over open fields and southwest towards woodland. A pitched roof timber clad ‘bridge’ links the cubes, creating a quiet space for reading and reflection. The asymmetric form brings depth and rhythm, unified by silvery larch cladding that beds the house into its surroundings. Concealed timber shutters provide shade and allow the home to close down in the evenings or during summer heat. The maturing orchard enfolds the house, providing food, structure, and a living connection to family history.

"The timber-framed home follows a materials strategy centered on natural, locally sourced elements, grounding the design in its setting and reducing embodied carbon. The cladding softens the building into the landscape, while inside, parquet flooring is crafted from an ash tree force-felled from the site due to dieback, literally rooting the house in its own ground.

“Situated in the Green Belt, the project faced challenging circumstances for winning planning approval. Drawing on their experience with isolated rural homes, Studio Bark secured approval in 2016 under Paragraph 79 of the National Planning Policy Framework (now Paragraph 84)—a policy that permits truly exceptional designs in isolated countryside locations. Such was the quality of the design and the rigor of the environmental backbone of the project that the planning committee agreed that the ‘Very Special Circumstances Test’ required for Green Belt sites had been met.

“Orchard House’s environmental strategy is built on simplicity and site-specific thinking. Early studies mapped wind patterns, sun paths, and biodiversity features to ensure comfort with minimal energy demand. PHPP (Passivhaus Planning Package) was used to improve U-Values, reduce thermal bridging, and manage solar gain and various material life cycle studies were carried out to reduce embodied carbon and ongoing life cycle carbon emissions. Local, low-impact materials reduce environmental impact while creating calm, tactile interiors. The central bridge houses a user-controlled core for heat and ventilation management. The use of monitoring sensors and occasional thermal imaging allows ongoing performance checks, enabling refinements that have significantly reduced heat demand, improved air quality, and balanced internal temperatures year-round.”