Cork House

Cork House
© David Grandorge

CORK HOUSE

Dido Milne, Matthew Barnett Howland, Oliver Wilton

ARCHITECTS
Dido Milne, Matthew Barnett Howland, Oliver Wilton

CONSTRUCTION
M&p London Contractors Ltd, Matthew Barnett Howland

BLOCK CAD MODELLING
Rk Cad

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Arup

CLIENTS
Matthew Barnett Howland, Dido Milne

FIRE ENGINEER
Arup

EXECUTIVE ARCHITECTS
Mph Architects

BLOCK FABRICATION
Wup Doodle

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
Amorim, Mph Architects, Ty-mawr Lime

LANDSCAPE
Urquhart & Hunt

FABRICATION RESEARCH
B-made At The Bartlett Ucl (Bartlett Manufacturing And Design Exchange)

FABRICATION RESEARCH
B-made At The Bartlett Ucl (Bartlett Manufacturing And Design Exchange)

WHOLE LIFE CARBON ASSESSMENT
Sturgis Carbon Profiling Llp

SYSTEM TESTING
Bre Group

MANUFACTURERS
Autodesk, Amorim, Aston Matthews, The Rooflight Company, Abc Anchors, Dmf Fabrications, Ecosofa, Eisenware, Good Directions, Nic Rhode Furniture, Original Bathrooms, Residential Sprinklers Solutions, Sbm Fastwood (Nfp Europe), Tom Graham Workshop, Whyte & Wood, Windsor & Eton Stoves

PHOTOGRAPHS
David Grandorge, Magnus Dennis, Ricky Jones, Alex De Rijke

AREA
75 m²

YEAR
2019

LOCATION
Eton, United Kingdom

CATEGORY
Houses

Text description provided by architect.

Cork House is the first of its kind, with monolithic walls and corbelled roof pyramids made almost entirely from solid load-bearing cork.

Its distinctive structural form and rich sensory environments are the results of a whole life approach to architecture, in which environmental sustainability is embedded into every stage of a building’s lifecycle.

Cork House
© Magnus Dennis
Cork House
© David Grandorge

With a focus on what is solid, simple, and sustainable, the project is an inventive response to the complexities and conventions of modern house construction.

Rather than the typical complex, layered building envelope incorporating an array of building products and systems, Cork House is the result of an attempt to radically simplify the building envelope.

Cork House
© Magnus Dennis
Cork House
© Ricky Jones

Designed and built as a prefabricated kit-of-parts, blocks of expanded cork are easily assembled by hand without mortar or glue, like an oversized organic Lego® system.

This highly innovative form of plant-based construction has resulted in a building that is carbon negative at completion with extremely low whole-life carbon of 619kgCO2e/m2 (as assessed by Sturgis Carbon Profiling to British Standard BS EN 15978).

Cork House
© Ricky Jones
Cork House
Courtesy of Barnett-Howland

The house uses an evolved version of a construction system researched, tested, and developed by MPH Architects, The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, University of Bath, Amorim UK and Ty-Mawr, with subcontractors including Arup and BRE.

The research was part-funded by Innovate UK and EPSRC under the 2015 Building Whole Life Performance funding competition. The R&D process included in-depth laboratory tests for structural performance, rain penetration, and fire, with two prototype structures, used to establish the real-life performance of the construction system.

Cork House
Courtesy of Barnett-Howland
Cork House
Courtesy of Barnett-Howland

The research project also developed a method of off-site prefabrication, with blocks for the house machined on a large-scale 5-axis CNC milling machine.

Cork House embodies a strong whole life approach to sustainability, from resource through to end-of-life. Expanded cork is a pure plant-based material made with a by-product of cork forestry.

The bark of the cork oak is harvested by hand every nine years without harming the tree or disturbing the forest.

This gentle agro-industry sustains the Mediterranean cork oak landscapes, providing a rich biodiverse habitat that is widely recognised.

Cork House
© Alex de Rijke
Cork House
© Ricky Jones

This compelling ecological origin of expanded cork is mirrored at the opposite end of the building’s lifecycle. The construction system is dry-jointed, so that all 1,268 blocks of cork can be reclaimed at end-of-building-life for re-use, recycling, or returning to the biosphere.

From this mix of architectural and ecological objectives, the resultant structural form is new and yet familiar - a progressive reimagining of the simple construction principles of ancient stone structures such as Celtic beehive houses.

The sheltering interiors are organised according to the rhythm of the pyramids, with a weathered entrance bay at the end that also acts as a gateway between gardens and an antechamber to the house itself.

Cork House
© Magnus Dennis
Cork House
© Alex de Rijke
Cork House

The exposed solid cork creates an evocative sensory environment – walls are gentle to the touch and even smell good, the acoustic is soft and calm, and copper pipes gleam in the shadows of the corbelled roof pyramids.



Cork House
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Cork House
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Cork House
Site plan
Cork House
Location
Cork House
Floor plan


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