Building a home in a beautiful rural setting carries with it a special sense of responsibility. This was Simon Fenn and his partner Mitra Cvijanovic’s view from the moment they decided to create a new family home on the Norfolk coast, in the hamlet of Waxham. They were determined to make as light an impact on the surroundings as possible, designing a modern eco-friendly home that would be modest in scale and with the smallest possible carbon footprint. Their super-insulated “beach shack” is now heated by just two tiny electric radiators and even these are seldom used.

We love how calm the house feels. It’s a complete retreat out of season, where we can get away from it all

“When we first moved into the house it was winter and so I went out to the shops and bought us all some thick socks and blankets, because I thought we would be cold,” says Mitra, who works in the finance industry. “We just didn’t know what to expect, but within a day we were all walking around in T-shirts. No socks, no blankets – nothing. It was wonderful.”

During a regular working week Simon, Mitra and their two sons, Alex, 18, and Sam, 11, are based near Cambridge, where they built a house for themselves some years ago with the help of Mole Architects. But eventually they decided they wanted another project – a weekend and holiday house that they could use themselves, but also rent out at times to make sure it was almost fully occupied. They began looking around Cambridgeshire and East Anglia until eventually they found a small bungalow on the coast in a property auction.

Clean lines: tiles and wood surfaces in the kitchen. Photograph: Rachael Smith/The Observer

“It was a prefab bungalow from the 1930s made by Boulton & Paul,” says Simon, an IT consultant. “They were quite popular back then, but this one was beyond repair. At first we thought we might be able to do something with it, but when we really started looking closely at the building we realised there was no chance. So we began moving towards the idea of a fresh start and a replacement dwelling. Normally you wouldn’t be able to build something new in a place like this, but we knew that we had a good chance because it was replacing the house that was already here.”

Simon and Mitra had the old kit house taken apart and recycled. Having already worked with Mole Architects in Cambridgeshire, it was a natural step to ask them to design the family’s very own Shangri-La, a concept that became the name they gave their next home. The design uses Passivhaus principles, meaning that the house is super-insulated and works to a rigorous low-energy spec, so that very little heating or cooling is needed. Mole Architects – who have plenty of experience in low-energy, sustainable design – joined forces with Beattie Passive in Norwich, a construction company that produces energy-efficient, zero-carbon buildings.

Let there be heat: triple-glazed windows are massively energy-efficient. Photograph: Rachael Smith/The Observer

“Beattie are local and were a really good fit,” says Ian Bramwell of Mole Architects. “They delivered a great result in terms of airtightness and thermal efficiency, but we were still able to design the house we all wanted. Essentially, we have these two rectangular volumes, side by side, and a spine wall down the middle that does most of the structural work without anyone even realising it. But they slide past each other, so that one extends outwards, which was really important in defining the layout of the house.”

The four-bedroomed house sits on the footprint of the old and takes some inspiration from the idea of the beach bungalow vernacular, with a twin pitched roofline and its broad verandah. Yet the house is also distinctly modern, with big sheets of triple-glazed sliding glass facing southwards to maximise not just the views over the fields but also the solar energy, which helps to warm the house; in summer the glass windows slide back to allow natural ventilation. The house is built of timber, mostly larch, with thick walls packed with insulation, as well as a ventilation and heat-recovery system.

Inside, the yellow front door leads into a central hallway, with two bedrooms to either side, and then the house opens up dramatically at the point where one part of the house begins to slide past the other. Here, there’s a largely open-plan living area with big views and plenty of light. But the layout also allows for an intimate seating area within an alcove, defined by a lower ceiling height. Then there’s a more fluid dining area and, to one side, the kitchen, lightly separated from the rest of the space by a waist-high counter that tops some of the kitchen units.

Comfort zone: the pitched roof can be seen in this bedroom. Photograph: Rachael Smith/The Observer

Joinery by two local carpenters lends a warm, organic feel to the spaces, while Simon and Mitra – who project-managed Shangri-La themselves – also sourced an engaging mix of contemporary and mid-century furniture and lighting. At one point, before the house was finished, the family thought about putting in a wood-burning stove to keep them warm. But the house is so efficient that Simon and Mitra are now relieved they decided against the idea.

“The Passivhaus principles rely on people being in the building and cooking and doing the usual things, which helps to warm things up naturally,” says Simon, who is now working on plans for a work studio back in Cambridgeshire. “We always have this very even heat, so the energy use is incredibly minimal, and we just love how calm the house feels. It’s a complete retreat, especially out of season, where we can just get away from it all. We have this wonderful view and the other thing is that you have this fantastic beach down the path where you can walk for miles in either direction. It is a very tranquil place to be.”

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