The Orchard

The Orchard creates a rural Scandinavian inspired dwelling in the heart of Didsbury. one of Manchester's vibrant suburbs.

Define were appointed to complete an existing self-build property for it's new owners. Inheriting water ingress issues across the existing building fabric, the buildings were stripped back to their existing structure and then re-cloaked in a new timber and slate roof facade.

The new external fabric focuses on apply enerphit principles to improve the thermal efficiency of the building.

"Our approach sought to improve the thermal efficiency of the building fabric whilst grounding the building into its wild setting."

Sarah Jin

The material palette is honest and celebrates 'functionality', with exposed galvanised rainwater goods and hard wearing materials including slate roofs.

The scheme retained the existing windows but relined all openings with secret fixed steel plate reveals.

The drawings below demonstrate the interrogative and investigative approach to our design approach.