Four eco-friendly homes with real style and character
Living in an eco-friendly home needn't mean suffering in a characterless box. Carla Passino picks out four homes across the country which offer vibrant homes that will do their bit to help the environment.


Worcestershire – £1.095 million
Wycheway House (also pictured at the top of the page) won an award for building excellence, and deservedly so. Rebuilt in 2006, it is extremely well insulated and comes with an air-source heat pump, heat-recovery system, underfloor heating, solar panels and photovoltaic panels, as well as a rainwater-harvesting system.
Even more than green living, the greatest draw at this architect-designed house must be the views. Perched at nearly 1,000ft on the Malvern Hills, it looks out across seven counties, from the Black Mountains in Wales to Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds.
For sale via Knight Frank. See more pictures and details about this property.
Surrey – £1,395,000
This four-bedroom newly-built conversion is quietly tucked away off Wonersh Common, a short distance from Guildford town centre, offering a touch of country charm with swish modern fittings and sound green credentials.
There's a ground-source heat pump to provide warmth in an eco-friendly way, powering underfloor heating that has zoned digital thermostats.
For sale via Clarke Gammon Wellers. See more pictures and details about this property.
Cumbria – £745,950
Sustainability is the byword at eggHomes, a collection of 19 houses in Viver Green, Cumbria – and particularly so at The Tyan, one of the development’s properties and a finalist at last year’s British Home Awards.
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This five-bedroom house combines locally sourced materials with eco-friendly technology, including automatic bathroom lighting, underfloor heating and air-source heat pumps.
For sale via eggHomes – 01539 760577
Anywhere you like – £500,000
Designed by architectural well-being firm Ekkist, in association with RIBA Award winners Studio McLeod, the Ori House turns the concept of Green living on its head. Rather than focusing primarily on the environment, it puts health at its heart with a choice of non-toxic building materials and features that enhance well-being.
The Ori is a self-build house, so the location is entirely up to the buyer.
For sale via Ekkist. See more pictures and details about this property.
Credit: Wickhams, Sussex
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Carla must be the only Italian that finds the English weather more congenial than her native country’s sunshine. An antique herself, she became Country Life’s Arts & Antiques editor in 2023 having previously covered, as a freelance journalist, heritage, conservation, history and property stories, for which she won a couple of awards. Her musical taste has never evolved past Puccini and she spends most of her time immersed in any century before the 20th.
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