In partnership with UKGBC, the Net Zero Architect of the Year award recognises architects who have made an outstanding contribution towards reducing carbon emissions from the built environment. We're thrilled to be shortlisted!

“My luck started the day Wilf came around for a cup of tea and a tentative meeting… From then on he took my jumbled ideas and a box file of cuttings and arranged them into a coherent, inspiring and ultimately massively exciting, beautiful and original design.” - Periscope House Client

Ever dreamed of building a one-of-a-kind home in the countryside? It might be possible - thanks to Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework. It’s a rare exception that allows new homes in isolated rural locations… but only if they’re truly outstanding. Click 'Learn More' to explore our research and find out if this policy can unlock your dream countryside home.

Join us for our LFA Studio Late on Thursday 19 June (5–8pm) at Studio Bark, Vyner Street as part of the London Festival of Architecture. Help build the bar using our U-Build system, try out our new carbon tool, SmallCarbon, and join our team for drinks and nibbles in our studio.

Studio Bark's Misbah Mahmood Asim spoke to an AJ100 lunch about creating circular practices in architecture using alternative materials and waste products. She spoke about our use of wood: ‘We were focused on parts of the wood that were usually discarded or considered useless or waste timber[...]and worked with structural engineers to come up with ways that we could transform the waste to turn into structural elements.’ Read the full piece on Architects' Journal at the link.

We’re known for our expertise securing planning permission through Paragraph 84. But did you know Paragraph 139 could offer an alternative route to secure planning permission in the countryside? Where Paragraph 84 focuses on exceptional design, Paragraph 139 provides opportunities by supporting well-considered development. If you’re facing challenges with rural planning, exploring this overlooked policy might just open new doors. Find out more in our guide to Paragraph 139.

Tom Bennett, Director at Studio Bark, speaks to Architecture Today about our bespoke carbon analysis tools and U-Build’s new acoustic interior partition, ‘U-What’. Portrait by Timothy Soar.

We’re very excited to share that our project Nest House has been featured on George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces on Tuesday 22nd April! Nest House is a small but mighty single-storey eco-home, designed to support the client’s health needs and built by students using our U-Build modular system. Prioritising natural materials, with no concrete or steel, it’s off-grid, efficient to run, and deeply connected to its beautiful natural surroundings.

Pivot House has found its way onto The Modern House – a real compliment to the project. Designed under Paragraph 79 (now 84) of the NPPF, the house is a study in low-impact living, shaped by its landscape. A parabolic timber frame, inspired by the branching of trees, defines the structure, while locally quarried flint gabions ground it in place. Visit the listing to get your own piece of one-off, energy-efficient architecture!

Planning permission has been granted for Quail Cottage, a retrofit and extension of a traditional cottage on the outskirts of a village in Norfolk. A reconfiguration of the internal spaces will bring light and flow to the home, while natural material choices complement its setting and character. The retrofit will improve the energy efficiency of the cottage, thanks to an air source heat pump, additional wall and roof insulation, and new energy efficient glazing. Contact us to find out how we can help you improve your home.

We'll be at Futurebuild 2025 on the ACAN stand, demonstrating our U-Build modular building system, carbon tool, and brand new acoustic wall panels. Meet the team and experience hands-on demos of our sustainable innovations! Sign up for your free ticket to the show.

Sun Barn is a pioneering environmental barn conversion that gained planning permission in February 2025. Rooted in Solar House principles, the house harnesses solar energy to power the building, ensuring it is both highly energy-efficient and cost-effective to operate. Two new sunrooms will optimise natural light and stunning views while providing bright, airy spaces for the owners to enjoy.

Our exhibition Barricade and Beacon explores the intersection between architecture and activism and focuses attention on the role architects, designers and citizens can play in lobbying for change. The display features two structures: Barricade, made from U-Build units, and Beacon, fabricated from bamboo and based on designs by Extinction Rebellion.

Update: Applications Now Closed Studio Bark are seeking a talented and highly motivated Part 2 architectural assistant. We are recruiting for a 12 months fixed term contract as maternity cover, with the possibility of this converting into a permanent position in future. Deadline for applications is 3rd June. More details on Dezeen - follow instructions in job ad to apply.

Our Director Tom Bennett spoke to the Big Issue with a different vision of what affordable housing can look like. Community-led housing is not just for city dwellers – it can boost overlooked rural areas too

Studio Bark have received funding from Innovate UK to develop a carbon counting tool. Our tool is specifically tailored to small practices to measure and report the embodied carbon of projects. To make sure the tool is fit for purpose, we want to hear from small practices who are looking for an affordable, accessible way to measure carbon - if that's you, get in touch at info@studiobark.co.uk.

Nest House has won the Homebuilding & Renovation 2024 'Spirit of Self-Build' award. The project was selected for its unique approach built by students, resulting in an off-grid, accessible home in the countryside for clients Francine and Stephen. Read about all the winners of the 2024 awards at the link.

Are you looking to make your home more energy-efficient, comfortable, and environmentally friendly? Our Retrofit Appraisal Service provides you with the tools and knowledge to make informed decisions about upgrading your home; whether you’re looking to reduce energy costs, enhance comfort, or lower your carbon footprint.

We are grateful to have been shortlisted for the Climate Change and Best of Built Environment Practices categories in the 2024 Inspire Future Generations Awards by the Thornton Education Trust! The awards are designed to celebrate projects that "educate and empower the next generation of 'urban shapers'", a topic that is very close to our hearts and we address through our education programme No Building As Usual. Click the link to learn more about the awards.

Now in its eighth year, the Museum of Architecture-led exhibition has this year been curated around the theme Recycled City with biscuity buildings including retrofits of London icons. Our contribution is a gingerbread cooling tower based on the redundant power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, memorialising the coal era while breathing new life into the community. Click the link to read more at the Architects' Journal.

Office fit outs contribute a huge amount to construction waste, with the average tenancy just two years ten months. At Sustainable Workspaces, our U-Build system provided a genuinely circular solution - the entire fit out has already been moved and adapted to suit the changing needs of the tenants, leaving no waste or trace on the building. Find out more in BBC London's deep dive.

Your first site visit is an important milestone in your journey toward creating a custom home or extension. We've put together a resource so you know what to expect on this first exciting step towards building your dream home.

As the built environment faces mounting pressure to decarbonise, could straw offer a scalable, high-performance solution? In our latest BE News commentary, Thomas Bennett delves into the underexplored potential of straw construction. With its rapid carbon sequestration, thermal efficiency, and circularity, straw presents a compelling case for bio-based building at scale. Click the link to read the piece.

If you're considering developing or converting your farm buildings, understanding rural planning policies and sustainable design can feel overwhelming. Whether you’re thinking about a barn conversion, building a new off-grid home, or repurposing unused agricultural buildings, there are many routes you can explore – and the good news is, many projects might fall under permitted development rights, making the process easier than you think.

Studio Bark have been recognised for our commitment to sustainable design in the inaugural Regenerative Architecture Index (RAI) launched by UK Architects Declare and Architecture Today. We are proud to be recognized for our commitment to creating architecture that not only mitigates negative impacts but actively contributes to environmental and societal well-being. You can read the full Index in the September & October 2024 issue of Architecture Today.

We are hosting a drop-in day at U-Build garden studio, Manbey Pod, on Sunday 22nd September 2024. Our team will be on site to guide you through the project. Find out more on the Open House Festival page. We look forward to seeing you there!

In the climate emergency it is now more important than ever to design and build truly environmental architecture. Greenwash within the profession is everywhere - but so is complex jargon and well-meaning misunderstandings. That’s why we’ve put together this simple explainer - to cut through the noise and help build the way to a net zero future.

The total renovation at Meadow Road began with the very practical objectives of remodelling the house to better suit a young family, and upgrading the environmental performance of the existing building. The house hadn’t been touched in years and was drafty, cold and damp. However the shared vision of both architect and client has created a home that doesn’t just meet these practical aims, but celebrates the best of features old and new, sensitively creating a new design language for the home.

Our Paragraph 84 project, Water Farm, was one of the most popular houses featured on Dezeen in July. Also featured is an exposed concrete house in Japan, a pair of renovated homes on a remote Canadian peninsula and another secluded home in Canada clad in cedar shingles. Read the story to see all five top houses.

Studio Bark has won planning permission for a ‘whole-life zero-carbon home’ in rural Cambridgeshire, next to a 15th-century moated manor house. The low-impact home, designed for a ‘forward-thinking’ family of four, will replace a post-war barn, centring around a full-height planted atrium space designed to enable passive heating and cooling. Find out more in the Architects' Journal.

Where The Trees Go tells the story of the origins and travels of wood for the 2024 International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR): Nature of Hope. The exhibition is now open at the Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, until 13th October 2024. The theme of this edition, Nature of Hope, focuses on how architecture can restore ecological balance by taking biodiversity and nature as a starting point. With animation by Jonny Glover (www.jonnyglover.com)

Capital & Centric has unveiled the designs from the four finalist teams in the RIBA-run competition to transform Wolverhampton city centre. Studio Bark have been working with Metropolitan Workshop, Jan Kattein Architects and Mole on our proposal for an ‘inclusive and sustainable’ transformation of the key brownfield site. Find out more at the Architects' Journal.

Water Farm is a Paragraph 84 family home in Suffolk by Studio Bark. The home for a family of five (and four dogs!) pairs a fresh visual language with low-energy design. Read more in Wallpaper*. Images by Jim Stephenson

If you're looking to build a new home on an isolated location in the countryside, Paragraph 84 could be for you. This section of planning policy is all about building new homes in isolated locations that are of exceptional quality and sustainability standards. We've carried out extensive research on the policy, and apply our knowledge to help our clients build their own dream rural home. Explore our research or contact us to speak to our team about your project.

From site finding to barn conversions, urban extensions to retrofit, there’s more to Studio Bark than you might think… We create sustainable and sensitive homes that our clients love to live in. We do it by thinking outside the box, seeing any planning or design challenge as an exciting opportunity to develop inspiring, future-proof, sustainable design. We work collaboratively with local authorities, communities, and yourselves, to achieve homes that are not just award winning, but loved by their owners. So, how can we help you?

Forest CLT is a community land trust based in Waltham Forest, that exists to tackle the housing crisis by building genuinely affordable, sustainable, and community minded places for local people. The membership group approached Studio Bark to develop a site in Waltham Forest that would greatly improve the area for residents; converting an informal car park into affordable housing and green space.

New photos, same values, as ambitious as ever to create positive change in our industry. We recently had a blast taking new studio photos with the brilliant Tom Joy (www.tomjoy.co.uk). Visit our Studio page to see more from us. This summer Studio Bark turns 10 years old and we can't wait to see what the next ten years have in store. We want to keep pushing the bar for climate action in the right direction, making sure to keep an open, generous mindset to bring those around us along for the ride.

We're very excited to be the winners of two Archiboo awards: The Activism Award and Best Written Content! We love that an award for Activism exists, and that our ideas have connected both with the judges and our audience. As our Director Sarah Broadstock told Wallpaper*, "Winning it helps us to improve our visibility in this area and connect with others interested in creating change."

Our project Manbey Pod featured in Homes & Gardens March Issue feature 'Spotlight on Sustainability'. Our founder Wilf Meynell says "We need a transformative shift to reach our global targets, and the materials we use play a massive part in this". Manbey Pod was self-built by our clients using our pioneering U-Build modular construction system, made from UK sourced timber.

We're delighted to be shortlisted for three categories in this year's Archiboo Awards: the Activism award, Best Written Content award, and Best Use of Video award in collaboration with Jim Stephenson. Explore the awards shortlists at the link.

We have won planning permission for a ‘whole-life zero-carbon home’ in rural Cambridgeshire, next to a 15th-century moated manor house The low-impact home, designed for a ‘forward-thinking’ family of four, will occupy a post-war barn, centring around a full-height planted atrium space designed to enable passive heating and cooling.

We've been shortlisted to design a new and vibrant neighbourhood in Wolverhampton for Capital & Centric, alongside many exciting and progressive names in the industry. We're excited to be collaborating with Metropolitan Workshop and Mole Architects on the competition.

Our project Breach House was recently granted planning permission for an ‘exemplary’ water-powered home in rural Leicestershire. You can read about it now in the Architects' Journal.

Breach House is a home inspired by the water that surrounds it, and designed for climate resilience. It was granted planning permission in February 2024 under Paragraph 84 of the NPPF.

We worked with students from the University of East London to devise a roof-supporting column with otherwise unusable timber at one of our sites within ancient English woodland.

Looking to avoid high energy bills, lengthy mortgages and other people? Tim Dodd features Nest House in the BBC's recent piece on off-grid living.

At the end of December 2023 the NPPF was updated meaning yet another rebrand for exception clauses Paragraph 80 and Paragraph 134. Paragraph 80 is now Paragraph 84, and Paragraph 134 is now Paragraph 139. The good news for you (and for us!) is that there are no changes to the wording or content of either clause.

A feat of engineering that provides a haven for natural reflection in Leeds City Centre to ‘make a stand’ against wasteful supply chains.

The screenwriter’s retreat, a garden studio built for creativity using hand-crafted sustainable materials.

Studio Bark's research and findings relating to Paragraph 84 of the NPPF (previously Paragraph 80).

In 2021 we launched ‘No Building As Usual’ as a highly collaborative cross-sector approach to student builds.

Visit our Studio page to find out more about who we are and what we stand for at Studio Bark.

A bespoke lodge in the Norfolk countryside, built by students using traditional local materials.

Periscope House is the story of a harmonious and collaborative client-architect relationship. We were able to create an affordable, environmentally exceptional home that provided the family with permanence, comfort, and a connection to nature.

Studio Bark's research and findings relating to Paragraph 139 of the NPPF (previously Paragraph 134).

Nest House is a single-storey eco-home, designed to respond to the client’s specific accessibility needs. Constructed using Studio Bark’s modular and demountable U-Build system, the house delivers on their dreams for a low carbon eco-home that celebrates the surrounding countryside.

The Bark Journey is designed to give you an overview of our process. We use the RIBA Plan of Work to move through the stages from project briefing through to building completion.

Sun House is a Paragraph 84 (previously Paragraph 80) home which builds on a history of solar house design to deliver our clients a beautiful, warm and bright home. The house could be a new prototype for climate resilient architecture; a home which builds upon the principles of the Grade II listed home the clients currently live in, but incorporating modern technologies to ensure light, bright connected spaces which have both low embodied and operational carbon demands.

We developed U-Build to transform the way people think about buildings and the way they are built, by simplifying the construction process and enabling anyone to participate.

Measuring only four-and-a-half metres across and three metres deep, this small new space does much to enhance the Victorian mid-terraced house. A large fixed skylight, paired with full-height glazed French doors, fills the wooden box extension with natural light and lends much to its Victorian host.

The Hood was created in collaboration with artist Michael Pinsky whose work is known for challenging the status quo on climate change, urban design and societal wellbeing.

Our how-to guide reveals the different types of survey you may need before building a new home on your land.

We worked with Chris and Roxie to construct their home with a team of architecture students in a pioneering live build using Studio Bark’s innovative U-Build construction system.

Cork is a common interior floor finish, and has even been used as external rainscreen cladding. We set ourselves the task of building an entire building from cork to see if it would work as the sole material, eliminating the need for frames, linings, glues, tapes, breather membranes and wet trades.

Our clients built their own garden pod - and you can too. Manbey Pod is a garden studio designed as a family amenity space, storage area and textile studio. This was the first time we’ve handed over the U-Build construction to the clients, Peter and Joan.

Oolite House is a family home nestled into the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills. The topography and surrounding grain have shaped the form and massing to ensure the house sits comfortably within its context. The landscape and house are intertwined, bringing family life into immediate contact with the natural world outside.