Office S&M submits plans for Para 79 countryside ‘earth house’

AJ 40 under 40 practice Office S&M has submitted plans for an off-grid Paragraph 79 house made of recycled tyres embedded into an East Sussex hillsideLodged with Rother District Council, the proposals for the 190m² home on the edge of the village of Northiam in the Lower Rother Valley feature 1,500 tyres combined with rammed earth excavated from the site.The emerging studio is hoping to win approval for the family house using Paragraph 79 of the National Planning Policy Framework – the ‘country house clause’ which allows new-build homes to be constructed in rural areas under rare, special circumstances.The three-bedroom ‘earth house’ will be partially built into the sloping 1.2ha plot, formerly occupied by stables, and is part of a wider development of the estate, masterplanned by Price Whitehead.This masterplan includes a therapy centre and permaculture school run by the same family behind the house scheme.If approved, work on the scheme could start next January and is expected to be built by the clients – Anneli and Matthew Hukins – with the help of friends and local craftspeople.