In 2009 we moved into the Brittany Groundhouse, a major step in an ongoing journey and a quest to design, build and live in a truly ecological luxury house.
Article written by Daren Howarth – Owner of the Brittany Groundhouse
We also wanted to make sure we built within a sensible budget. The results have gone way beyond our already high expectations, and due to an ever changing family life, we are now having to look at starting again, in another place, back in the UK. Fortunately, we are inspired to do this….
But how did we end up in Brittany in the first place? And how did we get involved with Kevin McCloud and Grand Designs?
The answer to that question goes back some 10 years when I set up Carbon Balancing business CLEVEL. From that came the chance to work on pioneering low and zero carbon designs for homes. Our first project happened in Brighton, an adaption of the american earthship design, and at this point Grand Designs got very interested. But it was a research project, not a home, and didn’t meet there criteria for the series. They had to wait until 2007 when I was asked to present about CLEVEL to Grand Designs live at excell. By this stage I had planning permission in france for my own home (which we had decided to call a Groundhouse – meaning a home aligned in nature). Kevin McCloud wanted to come over and film it. That’s how it started. .
What we did was very intense, very hard work, and very focused – over a year and half of our lives. This is actually quite quick for these kind of self build homes. We have one friend who came over to help us, who is building high in the mountains in New Mexico. She has been building for over 10 years. We and our build crews manually rammed over 150 tonnes of earth into the walls of the house, and we rammed floors and laboured with insulation and glass, all to deliver a unique, simple but extraordinary result. Grand Designs also put in time on the project. They came over and spent days filming with – which was always fun and kept us very aware of our schedules. I would recommend building your own home to anyone and everyone (especially if like us you can find an area with such friendly and welcoming people around). It’s a shame we have delegated this part of our lives to specialists and lost a basic life skill. Not sure the TV would be everyone’s cup of tea though.
Over the time that we lived in our natural home, the inside temperature averaged 20 degrees and barely fluctuated from this. We needed only a small amount of wood in our small burner to keep the winter temperature topped up. We cover all of this in the groundhouse book which we wrote to inspire and help others. The heavyweight design, and clever solar gain simply mean that ‘the living is easy’ – all year round. That, coupled with the overall feel of the space and the sheer pleasure of the rooms and layout mean that we are fired up to help others on similar journeys, and ready for our next one as we adjust to our life’s changing circumstances. It won’t be the same as Brittany. But the house will be. The Brittany Groundhouse and the old village of Kernombre are now for sale.
The views and comments herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Rightmove Overseas, Rightmove Group Ltd or Rightmove Plc