Malvern Hill House

This contemporary home in Malvern, Worcestershire, attracted a lot of attention during its build.

The three-storey hillside house named ‘Endeavour’, which featured on TV’s Grand Designs and in national newspapers, is notable for the clever use of Brimstone poplar vertical cladding that accentuates the building’s bold lines.

Brimstone was chosen for its stable and durable qualities. But as sustainability was high on the builder’s agenda, our underlying mission to support tree planting and increase biodiversity in local woodlands was also important.

The story behind ‘Endeavour’

The owners of the house returned to the UK from New Zealand with a dream of building their own home. After scouring the country, they settled on Malvern and bought a plot of land overlooking an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Designed by local architect Nick Carroll, the 210m sq low-energy house has an ‘upside-down’ configuration with kitchen and open-plan living spaces on the third floor, and bedrooms on the first floor.

An enduring look

Machined to a bespoke design, Brimstone thermally modified poplar was the ideal choice for the cladding on this contemporary design. It’s lightweight and the grain is silky.

The thermal modification process we use reconfigures the cell structure of the wood, creating a more durable, stable and consistent material. This means Endeavour’s cladding is resistant to heat, cold, water and fungus – all of which can cause wood to degrade and decay.

Supporting conservation of local woodland

Alongside the long lasting nature of Brimstone, is our commitment to improving local woodlands and remaining as low impact as possible.

The timber we use comes from English and Welsh woodlands which helps to keep our own native flora and fauna thriving. While our modification process uses no nasty chemicals of any kind.

The result is a material that not only looks good, but also does good for our local woodlands.

As ‘Endeavour’ was constructed to near Passivhaus standard, the use of Brimstone further supported the design’s sustainable approach.