Zephyr house terraced – philosophy and introduction.

Developing a lo-carbon dwelling for energy efficiency, a varied spatial interior of three bedroom spaces, interlinked spaces for social flexibility, built in storage and equipment facilities, a standard balcony and a large family balcony, outdoor paved space for play and a landscaped roof terrace with skyline views.

A design using the lo-cabon credentials of a cross-laminated timber two storey structure on a masonry semi-basement,for a conventional residential site, entrance street frontage rising above a lower ground floor with outdoor play spaceadjoining. Insulation levels are gained from a terraced house layout with semi-basement, privacy to the pedestrian frontage balanced with openness and supervision of an outdoor play space from Breakfast - Kitchen rooms, sufficiently open indoors to provide a wet day play area too. Electric power with night storage Tesla batteries brings off-peak power management for varied usage patterns. Front elevations of a porch entrance and multi-glazed screen, enable light and colour to feature a social dining space interior, discrete views of the street and a secondary glazed clear screen for flexible use and privacy modulation as an interior bay window. A daylight circle gives focus to a stair landing through the roof above.

A two cube morphology encloses each house, a fit to adjacent dwellings, which a cross-laminated timber structure allowing for an interior spatial variety a bed space gallery, cantilever stair, a large balcony under a standard balcony opens with an outlook to the rear elevation. The spatial freedom of a social dining space is open through two stories, while screened from the stairs and gallery above which gives a refreshing scale and a partial openness to the rest of the house. A tapered walk through to a rear lounge, discloses a large glazed rear balcony suited to container planting, social seating and an outlook to a play area below. 'Maxlight' and similar slender frame glazed screens offer views and daylight with insulation standards. If equipment can change with social as well as tech development, built in spaces can accommodate these innovations by flexible sizing and neat presentation in timber wall finishes. Insulated and fire- proofed finishes on the upper storey provide for bespoke decorations throughout the wet room suites and bedrooms.

Roof insulation plus amenity space is provided by a planted roof terrace option, accessed with ventilation and tank storage around a Pavilion shelter with a top stair access. Proportions of decking and planting can be varied, within a high masonry parapet of glazed brickwork or blockwork for weather resistance as much as an enlivening band of unity with the sky. Blue engineering bricks, yellow stock bricks and slate roof finishes make use of local masonry materials to reduce a transport carbon footprint.

Colin D. Brooking Dip Arch RIBA

< street view of three terraced houses.

Front elevations >

< an oblique view of rear elevations.

Roof plan >

MAIN FLOOR PLANS

BED BATH BED

BED stairs

First Floor layout > stairs

Ground Floor layout >

LOUNGE DINING

outdoor indoor

PLAY BREAKFAST and KITCHEN

stairs< Lower Ground Floor layout

^Part view of front elevation with multi-glazed screens.

Interior of bay window multi-glazed screen >

^Interior view from a social dining space towards a rear lounge and family balcony. A staircase screen is on the left-hand side and main stair rises from the open walk through. Timber finishes can be a

characteristic of a cross-laminated timber structure, with other options used in more personal spaces.

< A view from the main staircase.

A view along the first floor landing shows a daylight >circle above the stair landing main window beyond.

^Cross-section through a paved play area, two balconies, principal rooms showing a double height social dining space behind a bay multi-glazed screen, with a bedroom gallery above.

^View across a landscaped roof garden, to slate roofed Pavilion with bench seating.