Parking Barns, Passivhaus and green living rooms in rural Oxfordshire

Our ground-breaking zero carbon housing for Blenheim Estate in rural Oxfordshire has been granted planning permission by West Oxfordshire Council. Featuring Parking Barns, Passivhaus-standard homes and green living rooms for residents and locals alike, the schemes demonstrate how to overcome the challenges of building in rural locations.

Our proposals for Hill Rise (180 homes) and Banbury Road (250 homes) on the fringes of Woodstock are based on a housing needs survey we conducted in 2019 and the council’s Local Plan 2031. These new multi-generational neighbourhoods – specialist homes will offer care facilities for older residents - blend sympathetically with the countryside, accommodate local wildlife and natural features, as well as provide new green spaces, allotments, community orchards and places to sit and relax. Homes are energy efficient and laid out on traditional streets.

Local bus routes will pass through both sites and while there will still be room for cars – every home has one space alongside their home - they will be less visible with on-street parking located in new specially designed barns. Drawing their look from local farmyard barns, they will provide indoor, off-street parking for resident’s cars and other vehicles, and could, over time, be adapted for community use as car usage changes in years to come.

What this also means is whereas car infrastructure typically takes up 40 per cent in new residential developments, in Hill Rise and Banbury Road it’s closer to 14 per cent. Our green living rooms for both sites also demonstrate how to sensitively build on rural land, providing well-being and health living infrastructure, including new paths and cycle ways, and communal food-growing gardens.

Banbury Road was granted planning in December 2022 with Hill Rise approved this week on appeal, following refusal last year. The appeal found that Hill Rise was in ‘accord with Section 12 of the NPPF which seeks to achieve well-designed places. Such developments ‘function well, are visually attractive, sympathetic to local character and history, establish or maintain a strong sense of place, and create places that are safe, inclusive and accessible.’