Clay Field – Mikhail Riches

Introduction

This RIBA Competition-winning project for 26 dwellings in Elmswell, Suffolk, combines sustainable strategies for construction, lifetime energy use, landscape and the way we live and work from day to day. The project was delivered by Riches Hawley Mikhail Architects for Orwell Housing Association, The Suffolk Preservation Society, Mid-Suffolk District Council and the Parish of Elmswell; its ambition to provide affordable homes as house prices spiral out of the price range of local families and young people.

‘The sustainable, beautiful and suburban project of Clay Field by Riches Hawley Mikhail Architects looks like the future to me: a place of character, without pretension and free of the gewgaws and gob-ons of much contemporary housing.’

Kieran Long, Architects Journal, A Decade in Review, 17.12.09

Site Layout

A non-hierarchical site plan, with distinctive groupings of buildings, provides affordable, highly insulated and light filled homes. All the houses are orientated North-South and the form of each block, which is staggered in relation to its neighbours, has been designed to minimise overshadowing and maximise passive solar gain. Canted elevations, with ‘roof’ type construction, minimise the visual impact of the new buildings, and heat loss from the north facing facades is reduced through minimal perforation.

‘Affordable Housing is a sector sorely in need of innovation. In Riches Hawley Mikhail it has at last found an architect capable of taking on that challenge.’

Amanda Ballieu, Building Design Editor

An Exemplar in Sustainable Design

The project has a number of sustainable measures incorporated in keeping with the ethos of the project; to be carbon neutral and an exemplar of sustainable housing design. A woodchip Biomass boiler provides heating and hot water to every house, south-facing glazing allows passive solar gain and whole house ventilation gives a healthy home environment. In addition rainwater recycling has been incorporated and every house uses this to water their garden and flush toilets. The project achieved an EcoHomes ‘excellent’ rating and obtained a grant from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme.

The houses are constructed from a structural timber frame and use ‘Hemcrete’, a sprayed mixture of lime and hemp, to give a breathable and highly sustainable construction which is finished with lime render and lime washed.

Amenity

Public space is seen as a part of larger village life. Low maintenance communal gardens give spaces to cultivate, but also to relax, socialise and allow access for the wider community. These include a wildflower meadow, an orchard of Suffolk apples (with play equipment for small children under the trees) and allotments.

Curved walls define the extent of the private gardens and give a sense of privacy and enclosure. Across the site a series of ‘swales’, dips and hollows, provide natural drainage, organise planting, movement and play, and recall ancient field patterns formed through cultivation. Paths are raised as piers through the landscape, slowing traffic and prioritising the pedestrian over the vehicle.

Consultation

We worked with primary school children to get grass roots buy-in from local residents, some of whom went on to occupy the houses being built. Tenant consultation involved the allocation of allotments, the formation of a tenants’ association, and gave residents the choice of either open plan or enclosed kitchens. A project with the local school’s ‘eco-team’ involved presentations on ecology to the whole school, and site visits, with some children ending up living in the project.

Press

Grand Design Living in the Country 2015
The Guardian 2010
Green Design 2009
Grand Designs Magazine 2009
Dezeen 2008
Sustainable Design 2008

Project TeamAnnalie Riches, Cathy Hawley & David Mikhail

ClientsOrwell Housing Association, The Suffolk Preservation Society, Mid-Suffolk District Council & the Parish of Elmswell

ContractorO. Seaman & Son

Structural Engineer BTA Structural Design

Sustainability & M&E EngineersBuro Happold & Inviron

Quantity SurveyorHyams & Partners

Landscape ArchitectsJ&L Gibbons

PhotographyTim Crocker & Nick Kane

TOP

An exemplar in sustainable, rural design.

Clay Field, Elmswell, Suffolk
Project TeamAnnalie Riches, Cathy Hawley & David Mikhail
ClientsOrwell Housing Association, The Suffolk Preservation Society, Mid-Suffolk District Council & the Parish of Elmswell
ContractorO. Seaman & Son
Structural Engineer BTA Structural Design
Sustainability & M&E EngineersBuro Happold & Inviron
Quantity SurveyorHyams & Partners
Landscape ArchitectsJ&L Gibbons
PhotographyTim Crocker & Nick Kane
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