New-Build House, Kent
Client: Private

Design: Cassion Castle Architects

Construction: Earth Building

Cassion Castle Architects have just received planning permission for a ‘Paragraph 55’ house situated in a beautiful rural location on the edge of the Kent Downs.

The building takes inspiration from its context. It is to be constructed from compressed chalk excavated from the site. The chalk will be articulated on the elevations as gentle facets intersected with thin horizontal bands of slate, intended as an abstraction of a cliff face.

Due to its isolated location in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty the building was approved under a special piece of planning legislation called 'Paragraph 55'. This allows for such isolated new homes provided they are of 'exceptional and innovative design quality'.

The project will be zero-carbon in terms of its net energy consumption and will operate off-grid for the majority of the year.