Wildflower roof west bay hempcrete house Dorset

New Build Hempcrete Home

Windfall Cottage, West Bay

Located on the Jurassic coast and near to West Bay (Bridport) this residential project gained planning approval in the spring of 2022 and was completed in the summer of 2025.

The ambition was to build a bespoke home for the client to downsize to, in the garden of his exiting listed cottage. The building needed to be single story but with an interesting design that would make use of the views to the north and east, while being hidden and tucked into the bank to the south. Only the green roofs are visible from the garden of the old house.

To cope with the topography of the site the house is laid out across three distinct hipped-roof pavilions set at different levels, connected with links.

The house needed to have low running costs and be a warm and cosy but also uplifting space in which to live.

We all wanted to make a sustainable building where materials were natural and local where possible with the green roofs offering ecological benefits.

Hempcrete house in West Bay Dorset with wildflower roof

We took an environmentally conscientious approach to the design of this house from the outset with a fabric first, low energy mindset.

The use of Hempcrete blocks and cast hempcrete to form the walls ensure this house has thermal mass and very good levels of insulation as well as using a carbon negative material. The rest of the house follows the same principles using recycled, natural and breathable materials wherever possible.

The form of the building with the three hipped-roof pavilions brings several sustainable benefits. The opening central rooflights to each of the pavilions and the north facing glazing floods the spaces with daylight without direct glare meaning the building benefits from solar gain without overheating as well as reducing the need for artificial lighting. It also results in a natural stack ventilation effect which will be beneficial especially in the summer.

The house feels cosy yet uplifting and is a joy to be in.