homes as living sculptures

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View our latest property.

Stonebee Developments are a self-contained design and development company, working exclusively on our own unique properties.

Every aspect of every build has been meticulously researched, planned and designed in-house, with attention paid to every tiny detail. We only use the very best, high-quality technologies, which we feel are fundamental to living and are pioneers in installing breakthrough environmental technologies that create very low-carbon properties.

design

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Stonebee Developments are trail blazers in design, which we feel is fundamental at every stage of the project.

We believe the design of both space and technical systems is foolishly done in most British properties and aim to break the mould through exceptional interior and exterior design, construction techniques and clever use of spaces.

Our properties are designed to fit their environments and we use calming, natural materials both inside and out, combining beauty with technological excellence.

modern technologies

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Our houses are built to include a full range of modern technologies, some of which we have developed ourselves. These technologies are seldom used in homes but we believe that they are fundamentally important.

It is unique for a home to contain this amount of technologies but they create a functional, comfortable, luxurious living experience. We’ve managed to achieve all this in a way which is environmentally friendly, yet inexpensive to run.

The technologies we employ include:

―Inter-seasonal heat transfer systems
―Air tightness through wall and roof construction
―Heat recovery systems
―Space-age insulation
―Wall and floor heating
―Rainwater harvesting systems
―Environmental sewage treatment plants
―Underground boiler rooms
―Swimming pool technologies
―Stonebee unique pool designs
―Stonebee unique spa designs
―Stonebee unique steam room / sauna systems
―Unique duct systems
―Full telephone systems
―Full sound systems
―Lighting control systems
―Low consumption lighting
―Vola plumbing, taps etc.
―Full wi-fi and computer networks
―Stonebee unique hand-built kitchens
―Security systems including electronic gates

Many of these technologies are environmentally friendly, creating a low-carbon home.

environmental technologies

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There is a huge myth surrounding low carbon house building. Most technologies give a limited gain at a great cost. With solar gain, heat is only gained in the summer, during the middle of the day, when it is needed least. When heat is required, during the winter and in the evenings, solar gain is unobtainable. We have overcome this problem by developing a heat storage system, storing heat underground ready for use when it is most needed.

There is also a misconception regarding the insulation of properties. Whilst insulation is important to a certain degree, it is irrelevant if you do not have air-tightness. For example, a freezer maintains a very low temperature inside compared with the temperature of the room it is sitting in, yet has only a small amount of insulation. However, if you create a small gap in the air-tightness of the freezer, the insulation is useless and the freezer loses its temperature difference very quickly.

In our homes we have developed very special methods of building air-tightness into the property. We team this with a ventilation system, constantly changing the air inside the home to keep it fresh, and a heat exchanger, so that the fresh air coming in is warm and the property does not lose heat.

We have also installed environmentally friendly sewage treatment plants that produce drinkable water at the end of the treatment cycle (although we don’t drink it!) and have rain harvesting systems providing water for the garden, washing machines and loos.

Our homes also make clever use of lighting design. Low energy bulbs are very ugly and produce poor light, so we use a lot of LED lighting and believe it is more important to look at the control and placement of lights, ensuring our homes are beautifully lit for little cost.

spas

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As with all parts of our projects, we’ve fully researched every aspect of the design and technology of spas and have developed many of our own, unique systems in this area.

Our pools are all deck-level, beautifully created using our own, simple technology. We use natural materials throughout and put in very high intensity insulation foam around the pool so heat loss and therefore environmental impact is minimised.

Our steam rooms are also built from our own design. They incorporate heated seats and a full ventilation system. ensuring that everything completely dries out after use, preventing bacteria and mold.

kitchens

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All our kitchens are designed and hand built ourselves. An enormous amount of time is spent in the design of kitchens so everything is in place for the kitchen to function smoothly.

We have conducted extensive research into the choice of appliances and always select what we believe is the optimum option, generally choosing either Miele or Gaggenau. Equally, we spend a huge amount of time on the use of space and interior design within the kitchen, creating kitchens that not only look beautiful, but are beautiful spaces to work in.

bathrooms

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In keeping with Stonebee’s design philosophy, we have paid attention to every tiny detail within our bathrooms.

Bathrooms can be difficult spaces to get right, with too many areas prone to becoming easily tatty or mouldy.

We build solidity and durability into our bathrooms, making use of natural materials and ensuring that our bathrooms are joyful spaces to spend time. As with our kitchens, we have thoroughly researched appliances for the bathroom and use Vola, in our opinion the world’s best taps and shower controls.

before & after

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Presented here for interest are some before and after sequences, which show the level of transformation we have achieved during the construction process. However, the photographs also illustrate that though the space is utterly transformed, the original character of the building is retained.

Images:

―Image 1 - Frontage before
―Image 2 - Frontage complete
―Image 3 - Kitchen before
―Image 4 - Kitchen complete
―Image 5 - Roof pre-build
―Image 6 - Roof stage 2
―Image 7 - Roof stage 3
―Image 8 - Roof stage 4
―Image 9 - Roof stage 5
―Image 10 - Roof complete