Sawmill House

My house, designed by my brother Chris Gilbert, an excellent architect, is a wonderful place to live. Chris laughed when I proposed using waste concrete blocks, but the result is remarkable, with locally sourced timber salvaged from a big storm and unique features like a veranda roof that rolls back. The house is actually a caretaker's residence on the site of an old sawmill, which operated when we were kids. When I discovered it, the place was derelict, overrun with thistles. Now, it hosts the first community battery for Indigo Power, providing energy security to the network. The shed includes a 65kW PV system, and we repurpose materials, stealing logs from green waste and making briquettes from sawdust. Featured on Grand Designs (Series 6, Episode 1, 2015), it also won the AIA National Award for Regional Architecture.