Set within a private woodland garden in the heart of Tunbridge Wells, Woodland House is a new five-bedroom home shaped in direct response to the surrounding trees.

From the earliest stages, the design has been guided by the site’s character, its mature canopies, changing light, and delicate network of roots.

The building rests on carefully placed screw piles, a foundation system chosen to respect and protect the root zones of the existing trees. From this light footprint rises a SIPs (Structurally Insulated Panel) structure, selected for its low embodied energy, excellent thermal performance, and the efficiency it brings to the construction process.

Much of the project’s sustainability is embedded in its fabric. The SIPs system creates a super-insulated shell, which is then carefully sealed with breathable membranes, internal vapour control, and precision taping around high-performance windows. Every layer is designed to reduce thermal loss and create a consistent, airtight envelope, essential for achieving true energy efficiency.

With the building envelope sealed, the focus turns to ventilation. Rather than punching holes in the fabric for extractors and trickle vents, a mechanical ventilation and heat recovery (MVHR) system provides a more elegant solution, extracting warm air from kitchens, bathrooms, and utility spaces, and using it to temper incoming fresh air before distributing it to the living spaces. It’s a quiet, efficient way of keeping the indoor environment comfortable year-round, while keeping heat loss to a minimum.

Externally, the house is finished in a refined palette of charred timber and recycled metal cladding, durable, low-maintenance materials that sit well within their woodland setting and support the project’s sustainable ambitions.

This has been a deeply collaborative process from the beginning, with the client leading the build and managing the site with great care and attention to detail. Their thoughtful, hands-on approach has helped shape a home that’s both technically robust and rooted in the landscape it inhabits.

Now nearing completion, Woodland House is beginning to settle into its plot, its roofline visible between branches, its walls catching the shifting light. A home built with care, conversation, and a quiet respect for its setting.