Sustainable architects in Yorkshire

Who We Are

We are an RIBA Chartered Architects practice, designing & constructing highly sustainable family homes, eco-friendly house extensions & restoring listed heritage buildings. With over 40 years of industry experience, we have worked across the East Riding, York, West Yorkshire and throughout North Yorkshire & continue to deliver sustainable architecture across god’s own county.

Our Specialities

  • Project Feasibility & Design Solutions

  • Increasing Home Value

  • Planning Approvals

  • Building Regulations Approval

  • Listed Building Consent

  • Surveys & BIM (Building Information Modelling)

  • Project Tendering

  • CDM Principal Designers

  • Construction Project Management

Our Services

  • Highly Sustainable Homes & Passive Houses

  • Eco-Friendly House Extensions

  • Caring For & Restoring Listed Buildings

  • Heritage Building Projects in Conservation Areas

  • Sustainable Home Design & Renewables Consultancy

Contact Us

Email - info@samuelkendall.co.uk

Telephone - (01723) 331524

 

Ongoing Projects in Yorkshire

 

East Yorkshire Passivhaus

A highly sustainable family home with a distinctive Wolds chalk skin, characteristic of the surrounding area on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds. This home aims to set a new standard for healthy, sustainable living with a strong connection to nature and family life.

This home is made with the ambition of being highly sustainable, with close attention paid to its low carbon timber structure, passive solar design strategies and renewable energy systems vital to achieving an eco-friendly home meeting the Passivhaus standard.

 

South Cave Passivhaus

Sited on the fringes of South Cave in the Yorkshire Wolds, this contemporary timber-framed Passivhaus sets a new standard for healthy, sustainable family life, integrating passive environmental design strategies, building with low carbon, locally sourced materials & integrating renewable energy systems.

The project also aims to establish strong parallels with the natural landscape & built heritage of the Wolds through locally sourced, sustainable materials.

Our project makes a strong connection to the flourishing garden through framed views, fluid access from the open-plan living area as well as through integrated glazed balconies which achieve the feeling of being in the tree canopy.

 

Embedded into the steep topography of Box Hill, this home enjoys panoramic views across Scarborough town centre. The setting is characterised by a line of distinct homes each defined by their era. The house is defined by its steep slope appearing from the street as a 3 storey townhouse, but only as a bungalow from the rear garden.

Scarborough Passivhaus

This innovative eco-home will showcase how to design and self-build a contemporary family home which achieves a Passivhaus standard, negating any heating or electricity costs, maximising solar gain to photovoltaic panels as well as bringing sunlight deep into the home through a central solar atrium enabling natural stack ventilation through the building.

 

The project began with the dream of capturing & complimenting the natural beauty and landscape surrounding this Oxfordshire countryside site.

Chilterns Oak House

Nestled in the Chiltern Hills, this oak framed home sets a new standard for healthy, sustainable family living, framing its picturesque setting, integrating passive environmental design strategies & building with low carbon, locally sourced materials. 

The form of the home is made of three wings, each angled to capture a range of different vistas across the site. This fragmentary approach also allows southerly sunlight to pass over the home to the north terrace of the property which is wrapped by the 2 other wings of the home, maintaining privacy and framing the landscape beyond.

 

The project began with the client's dream to create a place to host their photography studio and allow them to indulge their passion for music, whisky and literature a garden length's away from their growing family home.

Beverley Garden Studio

Sited at the end of a Victorian terrace house garden, Queensgate studio is a modern timber pavilion, echoing the tradition of the Victorian garden summer house and the material language of timber fences that surround the site. Through a careful approach to local planning policy this project was completed without the need for formal planning permission.

 

Heptonstall House

Sited on a steep sloping site overlooking the Hebden Bridge valley, this bespoke eco-home has a distinctive character defined by the character of its setting and the passive environmental design principles at the core of its design.

The project aimed to provide the most joyful internal environment with ample, efficiently laid out spaces that are well-lit and naturally ventilated.

The unique material character of this area of West Yorkshire was explored throughout this bespoke family home with a number of grades of magnesian limestone, clean cut and rough edged as well as internal oak fixtures of a 4 storey spiral staircase which also acted as a ventilation stack to the home pulling hot air through the building.

 

In all our projects we aim to create homes which use no fossil fuels but instead take energy from their surroundings, this not only minimises our effect on climate change but also saves clients vast sums of money through their lack of heating bills. Mereside House achieves this through a substantial borehole ground source heating system which siphons the heat absorbed by the neighbouring lake to fully heat the home.

Mereside House Eco-Extension

A dynamic extension to an existing house overlooking Hornsea mere. The extension twists and opens to maximise the quality of views across the freshwater lake.

At SKA we often find that houses are built with little concern for the beauty surrounding them, often with views which cover no more than a small garden. Our extension to this semi detached home on the edge of Hornsea Mere aimed to capture the greatest views of the vast neighbouring lake, through extensive glazing and a unique bay window which we rotated to provide the optimal view of Hornsea mere. 

 

Solar Courtyard House

A courtyard home, made in the walled garden of a victorian terrace house off New Walk, Beverley. The home is made from reclaimed brick, cross-laminated timber and a planted lawn which makes up its biodiverse roof. 

Occupying a challenging urban site, surrounded by neighbours on all sides, this home counters its claustrophobic setting by turning skyward, making a solar courtyard at its heart which brings natural light, fresh air and views into the home. The courtyard becomes a tranquil oasis, filled with planting and a central pool which reflects dappled sunlight into the family home.

Cross laminated timber panels make up the home’s internal partition walls and roof structure, which are left exposed to the interior offering a warm internal character which contrasts and complements the brickwork. By using cross laminated timber and exposed brickwork we also negated the embodied carbon, material and labour costs of secondary plasterboard finishes, which would have diluted the home’s internal character.

 

The brief for this home required that the original character of clay pan-tiled roof and locally sourced reclaimed brickwork to be used to reflect local rural vernacular buildings, whilst incorporating many energy efficient design principles to create a comfortable rural residence as a home for a local family.

Lodge Farm

Pragmatically sustainable architecture is not limited to projects within existing structures, by using materials harvested from demolition & plant-based sources one can achieve a low if not carbon positive project.

Many of the elements used in our project at Lodge Farm were sourced from the demolition of nearby buildings, notably the brickwork, harvested from existing agricultural buildings on the site, fireplaces, saved from a nearby home, timber flooring, harvested from a nearby air force base and the staircase which we saved from the wasteful destruction of a local hotel.

 

Dusk-Dawn House

The last house along a leafy, tranquil lane in the village of Cottingham, this project radically enhances an Edwardian home's capacity for healthy, sustainable living whilst minimising the house's cost of living & environmental impact.

The house occupies a long east-west facing plot & our clients were struck by the dramatic quality of light that occurred in the home during early morning and late evening. Capturing this unique quality of warm, low sunlight became a defining quality for the project, highlighting the importance of natural light in a tranquil, healthy home.

This project began with the dream of making a family home which nurtured the healthiest family lifestyle, connecting strongly to the home's natural surroundings and long, verdant garden, a relationship largely ignored by the original house.

 

Our design provided a home which took full advantage of the environment around it pulling daylight into the core of the house, creating a pleasurable micro-climate through passive ventilation & capturing expansive views over the East Yorkshire farmland. On entering the house one is instantly drawn to the brightly lit double height sun lounge, which was designed as the heart of the house linking providing access between the living space and the garden beyond.

Warley Cottage

Our design provided a home which took full advantage of the environment around it pulling daylight into the core of the house, creating a pleasurable micro-climate through passive ventilation & capturing expansive views over the East Yorkshire farmland.

On entering the house one is instantly drawn to the brightly lit double height sun lounge, which was designed as the heart of the house linking providing access between the living space and the garden beyond.

 
Featured
South Cave Eco-House Ready for Air pressure Testing
South Cave Eco-House Ready for Air pressure Testing

The new eco-house in South Cave is designed to offer exceptional energy efficiency while seamlessly integrating with its picturesque surroundings. The project is set to undergo its air pressure testing at the end of July, marking a significant milestone in the home's development.

Sustainable ICF Cottage at Nether Poppleton
Sustainable ICF Cottage at Nether Poppleton

We are delighted to announce the practical completion of our latest project: a family home in Nether Poppleton built using sustainable modular Insulated Concrete Formwork (ICF) construction. This new cottage exemplifies cutting-edge efficiency and sustainability, showcasing the incredible potential of modern building techniques.

Final Completion at Ecology House
Final Completion at Ecology House

We are thrilled to announce the completion of our latest project: a comprehensive retrofit and sustainable extension of a semi-detached family home in Walkington, East Yorkshire. This project, dubbed the Ecology House, exemplifies our commitment to integrating sustainable building methods, off-grid energy systems, and biodiversity enhancements in residential construction.

East Yorkshire Eco-House Structure Completed
East Yorkshire Eco-House Structure Completed

With its low-carbon timber structure now complete & wrapped by the first layer of weatherproofing, our East Yorkshire Passivhaus stands as an emerging case study for a new standard of eco-friendly family homes.

Timber Cladding at the Scarborough Hillside House
Timber Cladding at the Scarborough Hillside House

The diagonally coursed Siberian larch cladding is nearing completion at our ICF Passivhaus in Scarborough. The timber provides a low-carbon, elegant skin to the family home which will season to a palette of soft greys as the home weathers in.

Full Planning Approval for The Ecology House
Full Planning Approval for The Ecology House

We are delighted to announce that our Ecology House project in the village of Walkington has received full planning approval, this project radically enhances a long-loved family home, achieving a new standard for sustainable living.

Hillside House Tops Out
Hillside House Tops Out

Now ready for its SIPS panel roof, this Passivhaus in Scarborough is testament to the pace and versatility of insulated concrete formwork (filling its sandstone hillside in just 4 months), the pioneering approach of our clients and construction team and the potential of ultra sustainable living.

Material Conservation at East Yorkshire Eco-House Site
Material Conservation at East Yorkshire Eco-House Site

The sustainable material conservation and reuse of the previous masonry cottage at our East Yorkshire Passivhaus site in Carnaby is continuing at a rapid rate, with thick monolithic walls of locally sourced chalk carefully harvested for reuse as the new outer skin of our proposed eco-home.

How To Design a Sustainable House - 5 Low Carbon Strategies
How To Design a Sustainable House - 5 Low Carbon Strategies

At SKA we have been integrating a host of approaches to the design of low carbon, sustainable homes for over 2 decades & in the last 12 months have developed many new, innovative eco-homes (with several schemes currently on site) which have pushed the boundaries of how sustainable a modern family home can be.

Dusk-Dawn House Receives Full Planning Permission
Dusk-Dawn House Receives Full Planning Permission

We are happy to announce our project for the sustainable extension, renovation and enerPHit upgrade to a family home in Cottingham, East Yorkshire has received full planning permission approval.