This visionary design concept for this house of tomorrow borrows from the elegance of the classical eighteenth and nineteenth century terraced houses, and presents a modern and sustainable concept for contemporary living.

The inspiration and approach to the design concept was to ‘become a little greener every day’. By applying this simple message, the design helps the homeowners of tomorrow to make environmentally friendly living a natural extension of everyday life.

The house, constructed using the FutureForm building system comprises seven prefabricated steel boxes stacked on top of each other. This produces a four storey, four bedroom townhouse on a footprint of 65sq m including garage. The design and modular system allow for flexibility to create terraced, detached or semi-detached units, two or three storey homes, and many alternative room configurations.

Conduits of light and life

The design includes vertical glazed shafts at each end of the house to provide passive warmth and light through solar gain. The positioning of these, coupled with the variegated design of the house, allows the sun to access at least some part of the glazing throughout the day, regardless of orientation. This lessens the need to rigidly enforce south facing arrays onto developments, where invariably many houses are left with northern orientations.

These conduits allow for a number of exciting possibilities in the layout design. With internal windows and screens, the spaces can access natural light and air, giving the interior a joined-up and connected family feel. Comfort is maintained using controlled ventilation, insulated panels on northerly elevations and a low maintenance, organic louvre system on timber trellising. This vertical garden, when in full bloom in summer, provides shelter from the full glare of the sunlight. When growth recedes in winter the sun provides welcome free warmth and light.

The area to the rear on the ground floor provides a multi-purpose indoor/outdoor space, capable of being opened up or closed off to act as an airlock and protect drying clothes during inclement weather.

The garage provides bicycle storage and an integrated electric car recharging point, allowing ease of access and peace of mind, secure from vandalism or theft. The glazed elevations also leave few outdoor areas unsupervised, ensuring a high level of ‘passive’ security.

The design caters for the ‘grow your own’ generation, providing a vegetable patch and home composting facilities along with built-in storage sheds for outdoor gardening needs. What we cannot consume, our gardens and its inhabitants can thrive on.

Bin storage is provided within secure, ventilated facilities at the front, integrated under the half landing, allowing ease of access for the filling and collecting of waste, recycling and composting bins. Level entry access thresholds ensure these facilities are accessible to everyone.

Economically and ecologically friendly

The properties and construction methodology of the FutureForm building system provide high levels of insulation and a superior standard of workmanship, achieving maximum airtightness and minimal cold-bridging. Similarly floors, roofs and glazing elements can achieve substantially higher efficiency levels with modern insulation and glazing systems, surpassing the requirements of level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. These elements minimise energy input required for comfortable living and ensure lower costs for the homeowner and the environment over the lifespan of the property.

Underground tanks are provided to store and filter surface water for use in the house, supplying toilet cisterns and outdoor taps. This, with efficient dual-flush mechanisms, showers and appliances, drastically reduces water demand and costs. Green areas of the garden, in conjunction with ‘grass block’ and ‘hydropaving’ systems, lower the amount of general surface water run-off, easing excessive loading on drainage systems. Over recent years, major flooding events have occurred in areas of the country not previously prone to these disasters. This type of design helps to reduce the extent and impact of these floods.

The flat roofs are excellent platforms for solar photovoltaic panels, providing free electricity to homeowners, with excess/unused energy being fed back into the electricity supply network.

Ideally, a community heating system would be provided, where highly efficient, industrial gas or wood pellet boilers could be operated and maintained cost effectively to supply hot water and heating at a metered rate. This would minimise excessive pollution from multiple boilers and raw energy supply networks. Alternatively, individual heat pump systems could provide these energy needs.

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