Background

The proposed Riseley Eco House would be built on land we own between 144a and 156 High Street, Riseley, Bedfordshire.

The house would be single storey, timber framed, with a green roof sloping up from the High St, built to comply with the Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6 and the requirements of the National Strategy for Lifetime Homes.

The ground rises 1.6 metres above the High Street and the proposal is to set the house 900mm into the ground. The majority, if not all, of the material excavated during construction would be used to landscape the site. We are looking into the possibility of using local clay (of which there is an abundance on site) to make cob (clay, sand and straw mixtures) which would be used in the construction of the house. All the vertical walls facing the High Street would be clad with living plants to become “green walls.”

The existing field gateway, adjacent to 144A High Street, would be retained and would become the entrance to the Riseley Eco House. The existing hedge, tree line and ditch along the Riseley High Street would be retained essentially unaltered.

The Site

The site is currently a paddock with a bank and mature tree planting along its northern boundary where it fronts on to the High Street. In the current Local Plan, it is identified as forming part of the Riseley Conservation Area and an area of Important Open Space.

Our proposal is to construct a single low impact eco-home on the site, which would secure additional landscape and biodiversity improvements to the site, enhancing its value as a landscape, ecological and conservation asset and protecting the whole of the site from further housing development.