Completed in 2019, Cork House was designed by Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton.
Cork House is a brand new and radically simple form of plant-based construction. Monolithic walls and corbelled roofs are made almost entirely from solid load-bearing cork. This highly innovative self-build construction kit is designed for disassembly, is carbon-negative at completion and has exceptionally low whole life carbon.
The Manser Medal - AJ House of the Year 2019
RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize 2019
RIBA President’s Awards for Research 2019
European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2022 - Nominee
RIBA Stirling Prize 2019 Shortlist
Architecture Masterprize 2020 Best of Best in Green Architecture
RIBA South Award and RIBA South Award for Sustainability 2019
The Wood Awards 2019 Gold Award
Structural Timber Awards 2020 - Private Housing Project of the Year
Dezeen Awards 2019 Rural House Shortlist
Sunday Times British Homes Awards 2019 Small House of the Year Shortlist
RIBA House of the Year 2019 Longlist
Offsite Awards 2020 ‘Best Use of Timber Technology’ Finalist
With a focus on what is solid, simple and sustainable, the project is an inventive response to the complexities and conventions of modern house construction. Instead of the typically complex, layered building envelope that incorporates an array of building materials, products and specialist sub-systems, the Cork House is an attempt to make solid walls and roof from a single bio-renewable material. Conceived as a kit-of-parts, components are prefabricated off-site and assembled by hand on-site without mortar or glue.
Cork House embodies a strong whole life approach to sustainability, from resource through to end-of-life. Expanded cork is a pure bio-material made with waste from cork forestry. The bark of the cork oak is harvested by hand every nine years without harming the tree or disturbing the forest. This gentle agro-industry sustains the Mediterranean cork oak landscapes, providing a rich biodiverse habitat that is widely recognised. This compelling ecological origin of expanded cork is mirrored at the opposite end of the building’s lifecycle. The construction system is dry-jointed, so that all 1,268 blocks of cork can be reclaimed at end-of-building-life for re-use, recycling, or returning to the biosphere.
This radically direct approach to environmental sustainability has resulted in a building with exceptionally low whole life carbon, assessed by Sturgis Carbon Profiling as being embodied carbon negative at completion and 618kgCO2e/m2 over a 60 year lifespan, the lowest whole life carbon for any building they have assessed.
From this mix of architectural and ecological objectives, the resultant structural form is new and yet familiar - a progressive reimagining of the simple construction principles of ancient stone structures such as Celtic beehive houses. Internally the exposed solid cork creates an evocative sensory environment – walls are gentle to the touch and even smell good, the acoustic is soft and calm, and copper pipes gleam in the shadows of the corbelled roof pyramids.
