24 August 2022 · By Rob Wilson. Photography by Jim Stephenson

Invisible Studio has completed its third building for the Newt Hotel, a yoga studio, top-lit by an 11m-long rooflight

The new building sits as a complementary structure to a lakeside apiary and next to a gym, both of which were designed previously by the practice.

Whereas the interior of the gym is focused around a single view of the garden via its enormous window, the yoga studio has a single view of the sky via a huge 11m rooflight, made from a single insulated double-glazed unit.

The studio is lined entirely in beech slats, designed to create a warm and immersive sanctuary-like space.

Like the gym building, the yoga studio uses rammed stone construction and is made from a local stone that gives it a distinctive red colour. Copper detailing also borrows from the family of materials established at the apiary.

The rammed stone external skin is something we get asked about a good deal, particularly as there is no roof overhang. The mix is coloured only by using local Hadspen limestone, which has a distinctive red hue, which is crushed from 45mm to dust.

No sand is added, just a small amount of binder which in this case is lime/GGBS/cement. We have used the Material Science Lab at the University of Bath to test numerous mixes, and we have experimented extensively with just using lime, but the curing process means the shuttering has to stay up much longer and it also hard to get the strength required.

Pete Walker – an engineer at the University – is a rammed earth expert and has been incredibly helpful. The walls are set out using a 600mm lift, with approx. 4-6 ‘pour’ layers in every lift. The stone was all mixed on site, and poured bucket by bucket into the formwork. There are stainless steel tubes in the wall to ventilate a cavity behind, which is formed using Surecav. The external skin is tied back through the Surecav to a ply sheathing fixed to an internal studwork wall.

The roof membrane is dressed over the parapet at the top to protect it, but held back an inch or so from the edge to conceal it. The exposed portion is then protected by a shelter coat. Piers Taylor, founder, Invisible Studio

Start on site July 2021 Completion April 2022 Gross internal floor area 100m² Gross (internal + external) floor area 110m² Form of contract or procurement route Two-stage JCT IFC Construction cost Undisclosed Architect Invisible Studio Client Emily Estates Structural engineer Hydrock & GLASS M&E consultant E3 Consulting QS Currie & Brown Principal designer Hookway Partnership CDM co-ordinator Hookway Partnership Approved building inspector Local Authority Main contractor Ken Biggs CAD software used MicroStation

Percentage of floor area with daylight factor >2% 80% Percentage of floor area with daylight factor >5% 100% On-site energy generation Nil Airtightness at 50Pa 3 m3/h.m2 Heating and hot water load 2 kWh/m2/yr Overall area-weighted U-value 0.12W/m2K Design life 50 years Embodied / whole-life carbon 5 kgCO2eq/m2 Annual CO2 emissions 20 kgCO2eq/m2

Tags Invisible Studio Piers Taylor Rammed earth Somerset Yoga studio

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