Signed, (un)sealed, delivered

The briefing pack was delivered to Knott, the architect, on Thursday by hand, partly because we were passing, and partly because the example pictures cut out from magazines (general themes: white render, glazed gable ends) was too big for any envelope we had easily to hand.  (Check back in a year and see how much we've compromised, folks!):

Statement of Requirements

Planning considerations

We have already had pre-application discussions with the Council.  Part of those discussions was the exploration of whether putting more than one property on the site would be possible.  Following those discussions we have decided to restrict ourselves to replacing the current bungalow with a single replacement dwelling.

The Council have indicated that:

·         A two-storey replacement dwelling may be acceptable, although consideration will need to be taken of the ridge heights of neighbouring properties;

·         It may be possible to bring the building line forward slightly given the differing building lines of neighbouring properties;

·         They would not welcome an integral garage forward of the face of the house;

·         One of their key considerations would be whether neighbouring bungalows are overlooked at the rear.  Clearly, this is negated if the house only extends as far back as its neighbours; the further the house projects at the rear the more of an issue this could be.

In other words, any design should more-or-less use the current length of the footprint, with the possibility of about a further metre or so front and back.

Overall

We require a 5-bed, preferably two-, but possibly one-and-a-half-storey (if required by planning) house.  Our working budget, including fees and demolition costs, is £240k.

For planning purposes it would help if the plans showed only 4 bedrooms with an additional room that could be used as a bedroom.   The following rooms are essential except where marked as desirable:

Downstairs

·         Garage - single

·         Large open-plan kitchen/diner/family area at rear with full-width bi-fold doors to garden.  The space should also make best use of the available light.  There should be enough space for a six-seat dining table and a three seater sofa, as well as in the kitchen:

o   at least 10m of worktop, including 1 and ½ bowl sink, with storage below and above, part of which should be a breakfast bar/island unit with seating for 3-4 on stools

o   space for a 1000mm range cooker with extractor hood plus a dishwasher

·        Either a (preferably) separate living room, or an area of the open-plan space that could be closed off from noise and cooking smells.  There should be wood burner in both the living room and the open plan area, preferably the same wood burner accessible from both rooms (not sure if such a thing exists?!) 

·         Study (does not need to be large, at least 2m x 2m, but a separate room would be preferable to a dedicated space)

·         Cloakroom with toilet and basin, not necessarily bigger than this though if  possible space for hanging coats would be desirable

·         Utility room.  There should be enough ‘utility space’ for food storage/larder, laundry, and plant associated with the house – heat pump (see below), rainwater harvesting pump, underfloor heating controls, etc.  Whether that is delivered in a single space, or in separate spaces is an open question.  A laundry chute from upstairs to downstairs is also desirable, but we imagine that this would cause more problems (e.g. sound travelling from below) than it would solve.

Upstairs

·         Master bedroom with en suite or wet room (1700mm bath, shower, WC, basin), and a decent amount of storage.  Double, but does not necessarily need to unusually large.  We do not require a separate dressing area.  Also a balcony would be desirable so we envisage this at the rear of the property.

·         Bedroom 2; reasonable sized double with en suite (shower, WC, basin) and adequate storage

·         Bedroom 3, reasonable sized double with adequate storage

·         Bedroom 4, reasonable sized double with adequate storage

·         Family bathroom – 1700mm bath, walk-in shower, WC, basin

·        Playroom/games room and/or gym/exercise room – enough space to accommodate a Concept 2 indoor rower (length 3m) plus yoga/pilates comfortably.  (Assume this room could double as a fifth bedroom). This room would need to be enclosed because of the noise from the rowing machine. In which case there may be some difficulty calling it a fifth bedroom if for planning purposes we only wish to declare four bedrooms – if the room were off the master bedroom this would not be a problem

·         Sauna (desirable)

·         Airing cupboard, probably with hot water tank

·         Loft

Whilst hard to quantify or prescribe, we would also like the house to show some kind of ‘wow factor’ in the design to make the best use of light and space.

Build & materials

We envisage the house being of either timber frame, or SIPs construction, with blockwork & render walls, or part-brick, part-blockwork & render if required by the planners.

Other building materials we wish to incorporate:

·         TATA Colourcoat Urban roof & soffit details

·         aluminium clad timber double-glazed windows/doors to garden (Sunfold Systems doors or similar)

·         slate or tile flooring in kitchen

·         bamboo flooring elsewhere downstairs, in bathrooms, and possibly in other upstairs rooms as well

·         Lindab guttering & downpipes or similar

Heating & power; and environmental impact & green technologies

The environmental impact of the house is an important consideration for us, particularly regarding long-term running costs and we are prepared to invest in proven and reasonably established technologies to achieve this.  The house should aim to achieve an EPC rating of A, but we are not necessarily trying to achieve PassivHaus levels unless obviously affordable.

However, first and foremost, the house should be well insulated and air-tight.

Secondly, the house should have at least a 4kW solar PV array.  We are also considering solar water heating, but we are not wholly convinced by its return on investment.  However, given an unobstructed and almost perfectly south facing roof, solar water heating should be included in the design.

We have investigated the possibility of installing a ground source heat pump.  Although the advice we have been given is that installation of a ground source heat pump would not be unreasonable in our circumstances, given the proximity of a gas supply (and therefore probable exclusion from RHI payments) we remain unconvinced and the design should assume gas central heating.

We have also inherited a considerable amount of wood and therefore a wood burner is a requirement for both open plan space and living room.  If it is possible to use one wood burner for both rooms without negating the point of a closed-off living room, so much the better.  If possible, the wood burner should be integrated into the heating system of the house, e.g. by pre-heating water before it goes to the boiler, but the house should not be reliant on the wood burner for heat or domestic hot water.

The primary heating source for the house should be underfloor heating downstairs, with either underfloor heating or radiators upstairs.

Another requirement is a rainwater harvesting system, suggested tank size c.4000-6000 litres.