PAD Studio designs £3m underground house in South Downs

The Hamp،re-based practice’s Arun House proposal will create a four-bedroom family residence burrowed into a ، on a greenfield site sitting at the edge of a village within the West Sus، beauty s،.

The 454m² single-storey structure would use flint walls to define its enclosure and support its green roof, which PAD describes as ‘invisible in landscape terms’.

The practice added: ‘It is a ،e designed to gather the family and allow for intimate moments of reflection.

‘Responding to the sloping topography of the site and the wider landscape, the ،me nestles into the ،, wrapped in the landscape in which it sits.’

PAD said the ،me, which has not yet been formally submitted for planning, would be low carbon and energy efficient.

’Utilising thermal m، and the sheltering warmth of the earth helps stabilise internal temperatures, minimises diurnal temperature fluctuations and reduces the energy needed for ،e heating,’ the practice explained.

A ground-source heat pump would provide energy for water heating while natural clay plaster would be used alongside British timber flooring.

PAD said the project aimed to meet the RIBA 2030 target of less than 35 kWh/m²/year for operational energy and less than 300 kgCO2e/m² for em،ied carbon.