Eco-Housing Project

Kibbutz Harduf

Emerson College

This project in Gloucestershire is for 25 houses incorporating a number of energy-saving and other eco-design principles. Most houses will incorporate sun spaces, high levels of insulation and materials with low embodied energy. Solar collectors and other active energy saving equipment will be available as optional extras.

The site is within the mature grounds of an Edwardian house. It has a number of valuable trees and adjoins an organic farm.
The Kibbutz is located in the Galilee region of Israel and includes a Biodynamic Farm, a Steiner School and a community for people with Learning Disabilities.

The houses are designed in compact groups to minimise their impact on the limestone landscape and its plant growth without the need for irrigation in a region where water is in short supply. Each house has a small courtyard with a pergola for growing vines or other Mediterranean climbers. The design also allows for through-ventilation.

The clusters of houses change form along their length, giving them an element of metamorphosis, a principle followed by Rudolf Steiner whose work inspires the community.
The College is an adult education centre based on the work of Rudolf Steiner. Students from 18 to 80 years old come from all over the world to attend courses and trainings in Waldorf Teacher Training, Biodynamic Agriculture, Foundation Studies, Visual Arts, Sculpture, Creative Writing, English, Puppetry and the Orientation Programme for 18-24 year olds.

Student Housing Project

A group of three hostels was designed to complement an existing tower house (‘Westwood’) designed by the architect David Austin. The tower motif is incorporated in each building, coming to a definite ending on the last house, ‘Oak Tree’. The group as a whole is a metamorphosis of horizontal and vertical elements. The stepped horizontal elements echo an earlier group of staff houses that can be seen at the top right hand corner of the aerial view. Westwood and Oak Tree are the only buildings in the group which were constructed.