In 2005, Riches Hawley Mikhail won a competition to build Clay Field: 26 homes for social rent with a ‘deep green’ agenda for Orwell Housing Association. The brief called for a scheme that was low carbon in construction and use. We teamed up with Buro Happold who advised us to prioritise a fabric first approach and use passive solar gain to help with winter fuel bills. This simple strategy was to face everything south and not overshadow in winter. The layouts and sections of the buildings were developed to achieve this, roofs were angled at 15 deg, the lowest angle of the winter sun in Suffolk.