Arts: Eco-Cool Moves in ; Surrounded by the SUVs and Ostentatious Palazzos of Aspirational Hove Is a Low-Tech Shrine to Environmental Responsibility. Jay Merrick Pays Homage

Beginning of article

A three-bedroomed house in Hove, designed by BBM Sustainable Design, has lifted eco-architecture clear of the taint of muesli and sandals and deposited it at the crux of moneyed, middle-class domestic aspiration. The building is formed around the core of an unremarkable villa that once stood on the site, and the crisp new carapace makes the portentous vernacularity around it seem fusty. There is an architectural cuckoo in the nest of one of the city's poshest 'hoods.

The house, shortlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects' Manser Medal, is doubly significant. It fuses modernist volumes with unmodernist building materials that are unheard of in such a …