It was important when designing Tommy’s House to take into consideration materials and where they were sourced. We tried to select materials that were freely available at builders merchant, but that were also produced in Britain in order to cut down on the Carbon Footprint of the construction.

For example the roof is tiled with Welsh slate. Cheaper slates are available from Argentina but the distance they would need to travel is immense.

The same was true of sheep’s wool insulation, a product we researched in some depth. It has been promoted as a great eco friendly product, however we found that although there are a few manufacturers in this country, the majority is imported from New Zealand. It was also four times the price of rockwool insulation!