We are happy to announce our project for a photography studio in Cayton Bay, Scarborough has received full planning permission & building regulations approval.
Sited on the edge of the North Yorkshire village of Cayton, south of Scarborough, this photography studio & gymnasium is made with the ambition to be as sustainable as possible, minimising the project’s embodied carbon, maximising the building’s thermal efficiency & integrating a coherent suite of cutting edge renewable energy systems and passive solar design techniques.
This project began with our client’s aim to shift their work as a photographer from a large office to a bespoke home studio, providing the flexibility and tranquillity of working from home. Our client was also keen to achieve a highly sustainable building that would minimise its energy & heating costs.
Beginning with an existing double garage, we chose to retain as much of the existing structure as feasible, transforming the garage with a highly insulated timber-framed extension.
The photography studio required an even, diffuse quality of light in working areas as well as views out to the street and across the neighbouring countryside which we achieved with an array of north-facing skylights & two large pitched windows capturing views and the rising & setting sun.
The site enjoys a generous south-facing aspect, creating a significant opportunity for harvesting solar energy for the studio’s use. We optimally angled the studio’s south-facing roof slope to provide a high capacity 19kW solar array (for comparison, an average domestic array is around 4kW).
The studio will also make use of lithium-ion batteries to store much of this high solar capacity, allowing this renewable energy to be sold back to the grid as well as allowing the building to keep the lights on through a power cut.
