Client: Brampton Rural Housing and Carlisle City Council
Architects: John Bodger and Stephen Crichton
Main contractors: Barco Developments
Joinery: Eden Frame

• I-Beam timber frame system
• Double glazed softwood windows with low-emissivity double glazing
• Douglas fir cladding
• EcoHomes ‘Excellent’

Brampton Rural Housing Society’s millennium project was the first building in the UK to receive BRE’s EcoHomes ‘Excellent’ rating, with a score of 72.9 credits.

This 3-bedroom house was designed and built to prove that sustainable housing can be attractive, affordable and normal; a house an ordinary family would enjoy living in and a builder (or self-builder) could easily build.

Features include reclaimed bricks and Welsh slate, Warmcel insulation (recycled newsprint), as well as stack ventilation, flow restrictors on taps and shower, low flush WCs, and low energy lighting.

At a cost of £67,000, in June 2000, the house was more expensive than the developers planned; however if more than one plot had been developed, economies of scale would have driven costs down.