Raspberry Patch Cottage,

Fife

Check out the project blog here.

This is a very exciting project, involving the complete renovation of an empty stone shell into a healthy, energy-efficient and modern home.

Set in a rural part of north-east Fife, it is planned for Raspberry Patch Cottage to be a leading example of sustainable renovation of this type of older building. With the works being undertaken directly by the building owners, who have built up an enormous skillset for this, there is a very high level of quality throughout the project.

Most of the 2-bedroom house will be on a single level, with one of the bedrooms nestled below the raised sitting room. Internally, rooms will be open to the pitched roof, making the fairly small floor area feel bright and airy.

To achieve the headroom needed, a highly insulated, breathable and draught-proof timber frame will be built off the top of the existing stone walls, which will - in turn - be insulated with a breathable and airtight cork-lime plaster. The floor will be a lime concrete screed over a compacted foamed glass insulation.

Windows, doors and rooflights are all triple-glazed, highly-insulated and airtight units.

With help from Graham Drummond at Passivhaus Associates we have used the Passivhaus PhPP to work out, and optimise, the heat losses from the building. This has helped us to avoid over-sizing the heating system, which will run underfloor heating in the lime-concrete floor screed.

The ‘radical retrofit’ at Lower Royd, by Green Building Store has been a great inspiration for this project, and we’re grateful for the advice they have offered!

Completion is anticipated for the end of 2019.

More details of the project can be found at the project blog: https://samfosterarchitect.wordpress.com/category/raspberry-patch-cottage/