Wallpaper* Design Awards: this rammed-earth house in Wiltshire is an eco exemplar

Save for not building anything at all, building responsibly with what can naturally be found on a project’s site is arguably one of the most sustainable ways to go. Tuckey Design Studio’s Rammed Earth House, in rural Wiltshire, is such an example. The studio was commissioned back in 2019 to design a residence that would draw on the owners’ love of British farmhouses and the countryside. The site, a disused former brickworks, offered a ripe opportunity to experiment with ancient earth building methods to bring them into the modern age.

Step inside Rammed Earth House by Tuckey Design Studio

‘The clients envisaged a low-build house, with strong eco credentials,’ says studio director Jonathan Tuckey. ‘It should also make clever use of the inside/outside spaces, particularly for entertaining, and feel intimate enough for two, but it could host 20.’ Tuckey set about analysing the site’s history (it had an established connection to using earth, and was referenced in William Smith’s 1815 geological map of England) and sketched out a campus encompassing sensitively retrofitted Victorian outbuildings (to serve as guest accommodation, yoga studio, semi-outdoor kitchen and storage), a new-build house and a service quarter.

New built elements were created using an equal ratio of clay excavated from the site, aggregate from demolished buildings, local limestone gravel, and water. The earth, rammed by the builders in layers, produced walls up to a metre in thickness, requiring no joints for more than 100m in length. The result is an earthen house envelope that feels seamless, but also as if naturally emerging from the surrounding land.

The layout is arranged in two distinct wings, set around courtyards awash with indigenous greenery and productive plants, while a series of large openings provide additional connections to the outdoors, offering idyllic views of woodland and an Iron Age fort. Interior finishes consist of clay plaster, limestone, copper, Douglas fir, walnut, oak, terracotta and brass, all blending easily with the smooth earthiness of the walls. Specially designed fixtures, such as door handles and lighting, as well as dramatic vaulted ceilings and a turret-style spiral staircase, underline the bespoke and highly sophisticated nature of the construction.

At 810 sq m, sat on a 63-acre estate, the property is large; yet the studio's clever design and high-spec yet tactile and organic materials afford a comfortably intimate feel – and importantly, form a home that is distinctly of its place.

tuckeydesign.com