Hawkes Architecture

Hawkes Architecture Logo

What are you looking for?

Projects

Follow Us

Information

Side elevation at Crossway, a PPS 7, energy efficient Passivhaus. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.
Courtyard of Bigbury Hollow, a PPS 7 energy efficient passive house. Another grand design by Hawkes Architecture.

Channel 4

Grand Designs

Hawkes Architecture, have twice featured on Grand Designs, showcases the eco-arched roof home Crossway and the stunning underground house at Bigbury Hollow.

Inspirational Architecture

A sustainable design journey

Kevin’s appreciation for the engineering ambition and sustainable vision have not only led to Richard being involved with other Grand Designs programmes but an increasingly involvement with the Grand Designs Live shows at ExCeL centre in London and the NEC in Birmingham where Richard enthusiastically shares his passion for designing “para 84” homes, sustainable design and energy conservation. Having lived in a certified Passive House longer than anyone in England, Richard loves to share his experience of living in an iconic pioneering eco house.

Grand Design

Crossway

Richard and Sophie Hawkes appeared on Grand Designs during 2009 realising their dream, to build their iconic eco-house in the Kentish countryside.


On the show Richard built his highly acclaimed eco-arch Passivhaus, proving that clever architecture need not be expensive and has since used his family home to test out the latest eco-technology.

Grand Designs returned to Crossway during the summer of 2011, to see how the property had softend into its agricultural setting. Known to be one of presenter Kevin McCloud’s favourite projects, admired for its innovation as well as it’s beautiful hand-made parabolic arch, the team were pleased to find Richard, Sophie and the family still enjoying the good life and their healthy energy profits, thanks to the properties clever Passivhaus design

Crossway
Site visit with Kevin Mccloud at Crossway, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient Passivhaus. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.
Building starts at Crossway, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient Passivhaus. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.
Kevin McCloud and Richard Hawkes testing the parabolic arch at Crossway, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient Passivhaus. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.
Kevin McCloud signing a Kent Peg Tile to go on the parabolic arch at Crossway, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient Passivhaus. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.
Richard Hawkes explains the parabolic arch to Kevin McCloud at Crossway, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient Passivhaus. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.

Richard and Sophie Hawkes appeared on Grand Designs during 2009 realising their dream, to build their iconic eco-house in the Kentish countryside.


On the show Richard built his highly acclaimed eco-arch Passivhaus, proving that clever architecture need not be expensive and has since used his family home to test out the latest eco-technology.

Grand Designs returned to Crossway during the summer of 2011, to see how the property had softend into its agricultural setting. Known to be one of presenter Kevin McCloud’s favourite projects, admired for its innovation as well as it’s beautiful hand-made parabolic arch, the team were pleased to find Richard, Sophie and the family still enjoying the good life and their healthy energy profits, thanks to the properties clever Passivhaus design

Crossway

“

To capture the imagination any great proposal needs one powerful idea. Communism had collective labour. Nestle coffee has George Clooney. Richard Hawkes’s house has a giant tiled arch.

This is Richard and Sophie’s Millau viaduct, their Pantheon, their St. Paul’s dome, because the extraordinary assertion that any arched or domed object makes is that gravity can be tricked.

The efficient parabolic form and its scary thinness stick two fingers up at the laws of the Universe and suggest that big heavy things like buildings can float. It’s one of the great illusions of architecture, pulled off here with utter bravado.

Kevin McCloud

Grand Design

Bigbury Hollow

When Kevin McCloud revisited the Crossway Passive House in 2011, the model for Bigbury Hollow was sitting in my office. When Kevin saw the Bigbury model he simply said, “We have to film that”!


On 14th September 2022 and in the 23rd series of the iconic show, “Canterbury 2022” finally aired for all to see. And what a journey it has been.

For us at Hawkes our journey began in 2009 with the previous land owner who had struggled with seeking to get planning consent on the site.

The scheme we developed was granted consent by Canterbury City Council on 17th July 2012.
The site was subsequently sold to Dorran & Vereushka who retained our services to help deliver the project. We worked on some amendments to the original plans to make it work better for its new owners. Kevin mentioned one of the changes in his commentary as he entered the house through the central tube, which was originally intended to be fully open through to the lounge and the picture window. The central tube was intended to be a bold design gesture, unapologetically pushed through the south wing like tunnel boring machine, leaving an open tunnel in its path. Instead the arrival space was made to work harder in providing various support functions. The rest of the original design intent remained in tact and delivered with meticulous attention to detail by arguably the most ambitious Grand Design self builders ever!

The rest, as they say, is history – or available to watch on catchup!

Watch Episode
Kevin McCloud visits Bigbury Hollow, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient, passive house. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.
Kevin McCloud's Initial site visit to Bigbury Hollow, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient, passive house. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.
Kevin McCloud's initial site visit to Bigbury Hollow, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient, passive house. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.
Construction at Bigbury Hollow, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient, passive house. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.
Kevin McCloud visits Bigbury Hollow, a Para 80 (PPS 7), energy efficient, passive house. Designed by Hawkes Architecture and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs.

When Kevin McCloud revisited the Crossway Passive House in 2011, the model for Bigbury Hollow was sitting in my office. When Kevin saw the Bigbury model he simply said, “We have to film that”!


On 14th September 2022 and in the 23rd series of the iconic show, “Canterbury 2022” finally aired for all to see. And what a journey it has been.

For us at Hawkes our journey began in 2009 with the previous land owner who had struggled with seeking to get planning consent on the site.

The scheme we developed was granted consent by Canterbury City Council on 17th July 2012.
The site was subsequently sold to Dorran & Vereushka who retained our services to help deliver the project. We worked on some amendments to the original plans to make it work better for its new owners. Kevin mentioned one of the changes in his commentary as he entered the house through the central tube, which was originally intended to be fully open through to the lounge and the picture window. The central tube was intended to be a bold design gesture, unapologetically pushed through the south wing like tunnel boring machine, leaving an open tunnel in its path. Instead the arrival space was made to work harder in providing various support functions. The rest of the original design intent remained in tact and delivered with meticulous attention to detail by arguably the most ambitious Grand Design self builders ever!

The rest, as they say, is history – or available to watch on catchup!

Watch Episode

“

It’s like a concrete submarine which has breached the surface of a wildflower meadow and come up for air.

Kevin McCloud

Grand Designs Live

Richard and his family have been sharing their experiences of building their iconic arch roofed Passive House with the audiences at Grand Designs Live since 2009 when they first completed their ambitious self build. In recent years Richard’s involvement with Grand Designs Live has increased through the sharing of his extensive knowledge and experience designing some of the most advanced and inspiring eco houses in the country.


Richard enjoys discussing his specialist interests designing exceptional new “paragraph 84” homes in the countryside and to be an early adopter of various renewable energy technologies and monitoring their performance.
This year Richard chaired a panel discussion with Kevin McCloud to talk about the journey, risks and processes involved with designing a paragraph 84 house.

Richard from Hawkes Architecture talks to Kevin Mccloud about his experience of designing energy efficient Para 80 passive houses.

Richard and his family have been sharing their experiences of building their iconic arch roofed Passive House with the audiences at Grand Designs Live since 2009 when they first completed their ambitious self build. In recent years Richard’s involvement with Grand Designs Live has increased through the sharing of his extensive knowledge and experience designing some of the most advanced and inspiring eco houses in the country.


Richard enjoys discussing his specialist interests designing exceptional new “paragraph 84” homes in the countryside and to be an early adopter of various renewable energy technologies and monitoring their performance.
This year Richard chaired a panel discussion with Kevin McCloud to talk about the journey, risks and processes involved with designing a paragraph 84 house.