“I spent a lot of time drawing the plan to make every inch matter,” said architect Mark Shaw of his meticulously designed house in Walthamstow, east London. “I can live in the house with a clean conscience, knowing that it’s sustainable. I love living with light, warmth and low energy – and I wouldn’t make any changes to the space.” His home has been carefully positioned to make the most of the sun, raising the temperature inside. “There’s no gas here. Instead, I have created super-insulated underfloor heating. I’ve got an air-source heat pump, which is low energy and heats all the water.”

Designer Daniel Sanderson’s lockdown project was, figuratively and literally, bigger than most: he designed a series of neighbouring homes in Stoke Newington, north London. This one in particular is a testament to his woodworking skills, as all the joinery was made and turned by hand in his garden workshop, including the oak louvres, exposed beams, kitchen countertops and wooden furniture. “I always try to be as sustainable as possible – I never throw a piece of wood away,” Daniel said while giving us a tour. “The end-grain butcher’s block, for instance, is the centrepiece in the kitchen and was made with all the left-over timber that was used for the kitchen cabinets.”

Perhaps it’s fitting that this extraordinary home in the hamlet of Westhorpe appears akin to a super-sized greenhouse, given its uber-green credentials. The aptly named Garden House sits with a Georgian walled plot, among exquisitely landscaped grounds and is topped with earth to conserve its heat and energy. “For me, modern living is about trying to live with the least impact on the world’s resources and reducing the CO₂ released into the atmosphere,” says architect Allan Joyce, who collaborated on the house with his wife, the landscape designer Anna. “Our home is one of the most energy-efficient houses that I have ever designed.”

Architect Ben Ridley, a trained PHI-certified Passivhaus designer, gave his Edwardian terrace house a low-energy renovation, creating a draught-free space with no temperature stratification. “When you sit by the window, you don’t feel the cold,” he explained when we spent the morning with him. He also let us in on a quick affordable tip for making your own homes more energy-efficient too: “My Passivhaus teacher always used to say ‘Go for the low-hanging fruit first,'” he continued. “We kept our original front door, which maybe isn’t ideal in terms of the standard we were going for as it let in a draught. But we ordered a cheap, airtight seal that stopped it completely. If everyone in London did that, for instance, the difference would be enormous.”

“When we first told people we were going to try and buy an old petrol station and turn it into an eco-house they didn’t believe us,” Sebastian Galbraith-Helps told us when we visited the contemporary house he and his partner, Lizbeth Holstein, built on the site of a derelict forge. “The house nearly meets the Passivhaus standard. We would never get this quality of house if we’d renovated the old forge.” But the best thing about this eco-friendly home might just be the natural swimming pond they’ve created in the garden. “All the rainwater from the roof goes into it,” Sebastian adds. “It’s not like having a swimming pool: it isn’t high maintenance, there aren’t chemicals or any PH balancing to do and it doesn’t rinse the area’s resources.” Anyone for a dip?