Cork House was designed by Bartlett School of Architecture alumnus Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton, The Bartlett’s Director of Technology and Lecturer in Environmental Design. Its construction was made possible through a research project which developed the cork construction system, an evolved version of which was used in the house.

Located in Berkshire, Cork House is the first building in the UK to be made of a simple new form of solid cork and timber construction. Its walls and roof are made of giant dry jointed interlocking blocks of expanded cork, a pure plant-based material with a unique ecological origin.

The house has exceptionally low whole-life carbon and is carbon negative at completion due to the atmospheric carbon stored in its plant-based components. It is easy to assemble by hand and does not require glue or mortar. Its construction enables easy disassembly at end of building life to recover its 1,268 cork blocks for reuse, recycling or simply to be returned to the biosphere. The expanded cork billets from which the blocks are formed are made in Portugal using by-products and waste from cork forestry and the cork stopper industry.

Cork House was shortlisted in 2019 for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK’s best new building, and has received numerous awards, including:

  • RIBA South Award 2019
  • RIBA South Sustainability Award 2019 – sponsored by Michelmersh
  • RIBA National Award 2019
  • 2019 Stephen Lawrence Prize for the best building under £1m

Oliver Wilton

The research was part funded by Innovate UK and the EPSRC.

UCL partnered with MPH Architects, the University of Bath, Amorim UK and Ty-Mawr on the project, with contributions from consultants Arup and BRE.

All the cork blocks for the research project were made at The Bartlett Manufacture and Design Exchange (B-made), using a robotic milling method developed specifically for the project.

Contractor: Matthew Barnett Howland (assisted by M&P London Contractors Ltd)
Executive Architects: MPH Architects
Structural and Fire Engineer: Arup
Whole Life Carbon Assessment: Sturgis Carbon Profiling LLP
Cork Fabrication Research: B-Made at The Bartlett UCL
Cork CNC Machining: Wup Doodle

Image: Photography by Ricky Jones
Video: Kirsten Dirksen