Private Residence, Dartmoor

This house replaces an aging holiday bungalow which the owners used for many years before deciding to make this secluded and magical site their permanent address.

The house and outbuilding are set down into the sloping site. With thick granite walls, grass roofs and oak joinery that is weathering to grey, both buildings blend into the surrounding moorland woods and farmland. The granite for the walls was reclaimed from the disused local quarry that had supplied the stone for Lutyens’s nearby Castle Drogo; oak felled and seasoned on the property has been used for the joinery.

When an improved electricity supply is available, a ground-source heat pump will provide heating and hot water. Materials from the demolished bungalow were recycled and used in the new house; these included the brick chimneys and concrete foundations which were crushed for hardcore. The natural materials, high insulation levels, thermal inertia, heat-reclaiming ventilation system and ground-hugging profile contribute toward a very low environmental impact.