Treehouse.

Location: Cambridge

Built by: Baufritz (UK) Ltd

Images: © Baufritz (UK) Ltd

This new-build home is located on what was a “backland site” in central Cambridge. The site is relatively small and entirely surrounded by traditional Cambridge buff-coloured brick Victorian terraces and their back gardens.

Given its sensitive context, this contemporary home is conceived as a compact box that, through its compactness, maximises the distance away from the site boundaries whilst increasing available amenity space. As a result, space has been optimised towards the south, providing the residents with a sunlit outdoor space, whilst – at the same time – minimising the impact caused by overshadowing the adjacent site immediately to the north.

The internal organisation of the house is intertwined with its immediate context. On ground floor, social spaces such as dining room, living room are located, all with access to the south-facing front garden. Service spaces such as utility, kitchen and pantry are located to the north. On the first floor the spatial organisation mirrors the floor below. Service spaces such as Bath/WCs, linen and dressing rooms are located towards the southern façade of the house.

The bedrooms are facing towards the north where overlooking is less of a concern. The south-facing window in the study on first floor is designed as an oriel window, screening the view towards the south and directing it towards the approach to the site. Due to the enclosed nature of the site, windows are carefully placed to provide long uninterrupted vistas, lending an unexpected carefully choreographed sense of grandness to the otherwise spatially efficiently planned house.

“Treehouse” is designed as an eco-friendly, low energy house for healthy living. It is constructed using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and off-site prefabricated closed wall and roof panels, which was erected in less than 3 days, minimising disruption to neighbours and site wastage. Thermal insulation values are roughly twice current UK standards and all windows are triple-glazed. Only non-chemical natural materials have been used throughout. The timber used for construction is logged from certified sustainable forests. The shell is 100% biodegradable and can be completely returned to nature.