Pioneering plans to build new eco- house
Plans to build a “revolutionary” eco house in Prestwick are to go under the microscope.
Norrie Smith, the man behind the scheme, insists he can create a “multi- generational home” fit for the future.
Ambitious plans to construct the three- bed zero energy unit were revealed this week.
Norrie, a director of ZEMCH UK, ( Zero Energy Mass Custom Homes), has been working on his dream vision for a decade.
Now he’s ready to transform his home in Adamton Road South using cross- laminated timber.
He said: “It’s been a long road to reach this point and, with any luck, we can now get cracking.
“I’ve travelled to all four corners of the world during the last decade promoting this project as part of the ZEMCH network.
“We fully believe in it – to the point I’ve spent more than £ 100,000 of my own money and not yet laid a brick.
“But you have to put your money where your mouth is if you want to back your own beliefs.”
Norrie, 50, and a team of top energy designers have been working on the self- styled ‘ Prestwick Project’.
His company, NRG Style, boasts architectural input from Pablo Jimenez- Moreno and Masa Noguchi, both regarded as leaders in their field.
The plan, to create an energy efficient home working from solar power and rainwater, would see a “Passivhaus” which includes its own lift and is styled as a “lifetime home”.
Original plans in 2011, which included a wind turbine at the side of the house, bit the dust after proving controversial.
But Norrie, who currently lives in the house he wants to overhaul, said: “The neighbours have been very supportive of what we’re wanting to do.
“It’s about using the plots we already have, of which there are many around the UK.
“This is citizen science at its best and leaving a legacy for the generations to come.
“We should be providing for the generations who will follow us with homes like these.
“We’re not proposing anything that will dramatically alter the landscape.
“It is a scientific project that proposes great benefits as instead of developing new plots, we can make the most of something we already have here.”