Wup Doodle are machining 1,200 blocks of expanded cork for an innovative proof-of-concept house, designed by Matthew Barnett Howland from MPH Architects. The Cork House in Eton is a prototype for a new construction system designed to create a radically simple building envelope, which has been developed in collaboration with commercial partners and universities as part of an Innovate UK research project.
The Cork House in Eton
Based on expanded cork as a 100% natural material with no additional ingredients, the system has been designed and developed to deliver low impacts and high performance throughout its whole life-cycle:
- Cork is harvested from forests that provide biodiversity and hydrologial stability
- From resource through to construction, the system exhibits extremely low embodied carbon
- Together with cross-laminated timber and structural Accoya joinery, the system is a dry-jointed prefabricated construction kit
- Solid cork walls and roof create a highly insulated building envelope
- The dry-jointed system allows for complete disassembly at the end of the building’s life
- The recovered cork can be processed and re-used as an uncontaminated completely natural product
Image Credit – David Grandorge