Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Eco-friendly home in old gravel quarry
Passing through the countryside between Harbledown and Chartham Hatch, you would have little clue something quite extraordinary is being built nearby.
That is, until this week, when lorry-loads of concrete are delivered to the site of the new Bigbury Hollow underground house.
After that, though, the subterranean property – within the boundaries of the Bigbury Camp Iron Age settlement on the Pilgrims Way in Bigbury – will be almost hidden from view.
The unique construction is the design of contemporary architect Richard Hawkes – the man behind the celebrated Kent home Crossway on Channel 4’s Grand Designs – and his team at Hawkes Architecture.
Their aim is to create an underground eco-property so in tune with its surroundings that, once completed, it will be barely visible to passers-by, with the aboveground area restored to heathland habitat.
They also want the house to be sustainable – zero carbon in fact.
The project has been almost six years in the making, with the £1.1 million build now well underway.
Excavation works have taken place in what was a former quarry and concrete is due to be delivered this week.
Mr Hawkes says the land on which it sits is a scheduled ancient monument site and therefore protected, but due to the careful design, it was granted planning permission in 2011.
“It would have been inappropriate to put in a big space ship-type building,” he said.
“The land used to be a quarry where they would excavate gravel but the hole was filled in with sand, which has now been removed.”
The four-bedroom house is known as a PPS 7 new-build and is being constructed using stateof-the-art environmental building materials and techniques.
Mr Hawkes says it has been designed to hide away in the landscape with a bespoke underground garage and storage space, complete with car lift, to conceal everyday items such as bins, lawnmowers and vehicles.
But despite it being subterranean, it is anything but dark, he says.
“It is all on one level. It’s got two long wings with bedrooms in one of them and the living space in the other,” he said.