Floorplans for a Three-Bed ICF Home with a Butterfly-Style Split Roof

When Martin and Mandy Newnum visited the half-acre plot that they ended up buying, even though it didn’t come with the view they desired, they knew it could be transformed into the right place for them. Although not the home they wanted to build, it came with planning permission for a five-bedroom house with tile-hung elevations. They looked at replacing the existing consent with a design better suited to them, working with a local architect to create new plans for a single-storey dwelling with a double monopitch roof. Rejected at first due to it being too modern, support from neighbours meant it passed on appeal.

The layout was inspired by a butterfly. “It struck me that this could be the shape of the building, with the accommodation in one wing and the living spaces in the other,” says Martin. The floorplan consists of two rectangle-shaped wings, connected by a glazed link entrance hallway. The space is all on one level and every detail was thoroughly considered. The bedroom side of the building sits parallel to the edge of the plot and the other rectangle is angled to ensure daylight falls into the living spaces in the morning and early evenings.

see the home

For the build they went with insulated concrete formwork. However, they came up against an issue with their supplier as there weren’t enough ICF blocks to build the house, which ended in a court case and left the couple £3,000 out of pocket.

The finished combination of the main building, garage and landscaped garden creates a striking home full of eyecatching details. The building features a mix of timber cladding, angled roofs with overhanging edges, corner glazing and two ponds that surround the building a bit like a moat. The airtight thee-bedroom house has an air source heat pump, underfloor heating and a mechanical ventilation with heat recovery system.