“Windrush” was a finalist in the 2009 Grand Designs awards, Best Eco Home category.
If Marton was the prototype then Windrush was the first production model. Windrush is a five-bedroom house built on the banks of the Thames at Charvil, Berkshire. It takes the same system of glue laminated Douglas Fir posts and beams with SIP wall and roof panels as used in Marton but refines the details, for example the junctions are made with stainless steel brackets and countersunk fixings.
The house is arranged over two storeys with four en-suite bedrooms upstairs and a further bedroom/study downstairs. The ground floor is dominated by a large, open-plan living area and kitchen with extensive windows to the river. On the first floor the master room has windows across the whole of the river elevation. The master en-suite gives a river view from the bath. All first floor rooms are open to a lofted ceiling.
This design approach now forms the basis for the Tapp-House system, which can deliver a pre-engineered construction kit, designed to each individual client’s brief, for assembly and completion on site anywhere in the world. The system will work on any site but is particularly well suited to water-side or sloping sites.
Houses on land liable to flood can be raised above the flood level but it is more difficult to deal with the garage. Obviously the car needs level access, which normally means the garage has to be liable to flooding. At Windrush we developed a lifting system, which was applied to the whole double garage building, lifting it completely by around 1.5m above the ground, complete with the cars inside.