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. Read the full story 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.

Could Paragraph 139 (previously Paragraph 134) of the National Planning Policy Framework replace the country house clause as a more reliable way of getting rural one-off houses through planning? Keith Cooper reports in the Architects Journal

This year we have teamed up with students at the University of East London for a construction week looking at historical techniques of timber furniture making and translating these techniques into methods of construction.

We're excited to announce that Making A Stand is the winner of Best Small Project 2023 in the IStructE Yorkshire Regional Group Awards. The project was commended for it's sustainable design, and locally sourced UK Douglas Fir fins that were graded individually according to each of their structural demands.

Our project Nest House, built by our very own student program No Building As Usual, was captured in a short film by architectural photographer and filmmaker, Jim Stephenson and his team. The film was premiered at the RIBA in December 2022 and you can watch it now online.

‘No Building As Usual’ is our student build programme addressing gaps within the building industry regarding a lack of diversity and climate literacy.

We collaborated with artist Michael Pinsky to create the wooden Making A Stand installation, which aims to explore material life cycles and "stand in solidarity with climate protestors". Find out what Dezeen had to say about the piece.

Taking on any type of building project can feel like a daunting task. You may be questioning how to hire an architect, or whether your house could achieve whole life zero carbon. One question at the top of any prospective client’s list is what type of surveys might I need?

Our clients, Peter and Joan, built their garden studio using our U-Build system. The Pod is a garden studio designed as a family amenity space, storage area and textile studio. Peter and Joan kept a diary to chart their progress - so you can follow their self-build journey.

How can architects influence carbon-intensive supply chains? Our director Wilf Meynell spoke to World Architecture News about our project Making A Stand and the message it's designed to portray about the provenance of timber. The project sends out an urgent call for the built environment industry to use more sustainable materials such as timber.

Studio Bark began trialling a 9-day fortnight in 2023 and will be continuing throughout 2024. Every other Friday our office will be closed, as we take time off to refresh, revitalise and restrengthen. Visit our Contact page for our 2024 office closure dates and to find out more about the initiative.

Foundations disrupt ground and release carbon, and damage biodiversity. Less invasive methods are effective so let’s use them, says James Mickelburgh of Jensen Hunt engineers. James explores the techniques we used at our project Nest House in the Wye Valley. For this project we used fully demountable Jackpad foundations, which are both recycled and recyclable and crossed with a grid of reclaimed railway sleepers.

Our proposal for a farm renovation in rural Shropshire promotes the removal or reuse of dilapidated buildings at an existing farmstead.

Paragraph 84 (previously Paragraph 80) refers to a section of the 2021 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) relating to building new isolated homes in the open countryside.

Take a peek at Oolite House’s progress… Oolite House is currently under construction in the beautiful Cotswold Valley.

From the approach, Black Barn is a visually impressive, contemporary piece of architecture that sits discreetly within the landscape. However, it also provides a shelter; a bespoke and comfortable family home that is rigorously environmental and efficient to run.

Grand Designs Magazine have featured our project Nest House in their September issue. The piece explores ten innovative homes that generate their own solar energy for an array of uses, towards the goal of self-sufficiency and low utility bills.

Read our how-to guide about what surveys you may need for a new home on your land.

Billingford is a two bedroom home constructed using Studio Bark’s flat-pack U-Build system. U-Build was chosen in response to the client’s self-build ambitions which allowed them greater involvement with the build process.