Lord Rogers’ designs for housebuilder George Wimpey were unveiled yesterday at Oxley Woods, in Milton Keynes. The Times
Built of sustainable materials and fitted with a range of energy-saving features, the 15 designs are among the most eco-friendly properties yet devised for the mass market.
Each was built in two days, without a single brick, and it took four weeks to decorate the homes and install water, electricity, kitchens and bathroom.
Among innovations are Ecohats — systems on roofs that use solar power and heat exchange units — and insulation using recycled paper.
Lord Rogers’ colleague, Ivan Harbour, said: ‘Our brief was an average rabbit hutch. We couldn’t increase floor area or volume. We gathered together all the complicated bits like toilets, staircases and boiler rooms, and tried to fit them in as small a space as possible so we had a bigger volume for living space.
‘I would call them organised rabbit hutches rather than disorganised rabbit hutches.’