In March 2006, a joinery/carpentry firm - Talisman Manufacturing, owned by Bill Bradley (who is passionate about wood) - began building two timber eco houses in South London (Landells Road, Dulwich). The scheme was architect-designed for a RIBA competition entitled The Future House of London, and encouraged architects to design houses suited to making better use of brownfield sites. As such, the houses are very unusual/interesting/modern and everyone who visits is "blown-away".

The timber houses - constructed of huge parrallams sitting on steel piles - have been clad in stylish Western Red Cedar sourced with help from the Canadian Timber Assn, surrounded by a huge Massandubra deck and lush tropical gardens designed by a Silver-medal Chelsea Flower Show winner. The houses are both 4-bed detatched homes and Kevin McCloud has nick-named them the "Furniture Houses" or "Jewellery Box Houses" as they do rather resemble beautiful hand-crafted cabinets.

Wooden fixtures and fittings throughout the houses are all manufactured from carefully selected FSC woods, with no detriment whatsover to the rainforests. A huge amount of research has gone into all aspects of the design - from the flat seedum-planted roofs that drain into a rain-harvesting tank; to the kitchen worktops which are being made from recycled wine bottles and crushed shells. Around 45% of the first floor of each house is glazed and, as they are built around a U-shape atrium, they are light, bright and modern with vistas right through each house. The glass has been our nemesis but is now thankfully all resolved and the drama will make good television!

The houses have been designated as the headquarters for the SAVE THE RAIN CAMPAIGN - huge tanks buried beneath the house will collect run-off rain from the flat roofs, to be re-cycled for WC flushing etc. The floors are all in bamboo with efficient underfloor heating powered by new landscape solar panels.

Internally, Bill is building much of the furniture himself, including the kitchens, using a variety of timbers and eco products (the backlit Bear grass resin splashbacks and recycled glass worktops are particularly stunning and are completely bespoke, developed in conjunction with talented artists). We have found a green TV made by Philips and energy efficient appliances from Neff.

Technical overview:-

• Two detached eco-friendly dwellings, built on brown-field site surrounded on all sides by residential properties. The houses are approached through a video entrance gateway opening to a timber-decked walkway with external built in lighting and planting.
  
  
• Low impact piling foundation system designed to reduce the impact on surrounding boundary walls and neighbouring homes. Same system as used by the Victorians to build the piers around UK coastline.
  
  
• Timber construction. Walls and floors supported by parallam engineered beams encapsulating all cantilever aspects.
  
  
• Building is sheathed in a constructional board and clad in vertically fixed fire-treated Western Red Cedar. The cedar has been supplied in part by the Canadian Timber Assn to help raise awareness of this FSC timber.
  
  
• Clever design retains the neighbours' perception of their greenness by using natural materials, extensive elevational planting and low maintenance flat sedum grass roofs. Seedum ensures water drainage is 90% more efficient than hard roofs. The run-off water will drain into a rain-harvesting system and be recycled for flushing toilets and exterior taps. The suppliers of the harvesting system are going to use the site to spearhead their "Save the Rain" PR campaign in 2007.
  
  
• About 40% of the first foor will be glazed. Windows are constructed and positioned to provide privacy to the occupier and adjacent neighbours with glazing running up from the floor and across the ceilings in the bedrooms and bathrooms. The houses are centred around fully glazed courtyards with open-plan living areas to each side. Large glazed doors at each end of the building open on to landscaped garden rooms. This, together with architectural planting to the courtyard areas, provides a green vista from any location on the ground floor.
  
  
• The issue of being overlooked/overlooking has been carefully considered with the clever use of controlled window views, roof lighting and obscured glazing elements. Southwark's Planning Dept showed particular support for the proposal in relation to issues of overlooking and daylight/sunlight.
  
  
• The kitchen worktops will be made from recycled wine bottles (crushed and mixed with shells).
  
  
• Upper floor, reached via a floating staircase, consists of four double bedrooms joined centrally by a linked glazed 'bridge' overlooking the courtyard.
  
  
• Garden design is by Simon Thomas, Chelsea Flower Show silver-medal winner, and includes 100% FSC deck, lush, tropical, micro-climate planting, and lime rendered walls.
  
  
• All internal décor will use eco-friendly paint and natural pigments/oils. The exterior cladding will be stained with linseed oils to maintain green credentials.
  
  
• The scale of the dwellings has been kept modest and the form broken up so as not to present large blank elements.