This Cork clad house is winner of the Environmental Prize 2025 at ‘Don’t Move, Improve!’ * and shortlisted for this year’s RIBA London Awards. Designed by Nina Woodcroft at London-based company Nina+Co in association with ROAR Architects.
The project involved a deep retrofit using predominantly natural, local or recycled materials to turn a cold, leaky and uninspiring 1970s building into a modern low-energy and fossil-fuel-free home.
Photography: French+Tye
Originally built as a clergy house for the church next door, the decision was made to preserve the existing structure rather than extend it, focusing the budget primarily on infrastructure, technical performance, and comfort.
The gas supply was removed, an air-source heat pump installed with underfloor heating, new doors and windows and a huge effort was made to improve air-tightness.
Alongside the cork exterior wall, wood fibre, sheep’s wool and an insulative lime-based plaster with cork granules were used to insulate further internally.
One of the most striking features of the building is the thick cork cladding, with its softly rounded edges. As Nina says, “I really love cork, and being new to the neighbourhood, it has been a nice way to engage with our community. A lot of delivery drivers will say, ‘What’s this?’ and we’ll have a chat for 10 minutes about cork – instead of just a transactional ‘Thank you, bye.’”
As Nina explains: “Cork trees regrow their bark after harvesting, sequestering more CO2 each time. Cork forests are often biodiverse regions and are a wonderful example of regenerative agriculture worth supporting. Dark expanded cork, as used in insulation, doesn’t have any synthetic binders added – the steaming process activates the natural binders within the cork, so it’s a truly natural product with incredibly useful properties. It felt wholly appropriate to use cork extensively in this build as the home has held a strong Portugal connection with previous owners being a Portuguese family living here for 40 years.”
Design: https://ninaand.co – London-based design studio that specialises in sustainable and ethical design principles.
Architects: https://roar-architects.com/
Cork materials: https://www.barnacork.com/
* The ‘Don’t Move, Improve!’ awards are awarded annually by New London Architecture and seek to improve the quality and standards of new housing design.
#recyclable #biobased #biodegradeable #non-toxic #cork
