In the hills above Blackwood, in a small upland community in Caerphilly county borough, stands the farmhouse that Arthur Davies spent twenty years trying to build. When it was finally completed, it won the RTPI Wales Planning Award and became a nationally recognised demonstration of what off-grid rural living could look like in the twenty-first century.
Via BRE, we served as architect on this project. This was not a large or prestigious commission — it was a farmhouse, modest in budget and ambition. But the combination of a client who had persevered against every obstacle, a site that demanded ingenuity, and a brief that had no choice but to be sustainable made it one of the most important projects we have worked on.
The farm and the family
The Maes-yr-Onn farm was established in 1825. Arthur Davies's father bought it in 1946, and Arthur has farmed mountain sheep there for over thirty years. There was already a farmhouse on the site when his father arrived — but it had been allowed to fall into serious disrepair, and by 1982 it had deteriorated to the point where it was no longer safe to occupy and had to be demolished.
Without a house, the farm became almost impossible to run. Arthur and his wife Sue began applying for planning permission to rebuild. They applied, were refused, and applied again — over and over, for two decades. This was their final attempt.
The site had no mains electricity, no gas, no piped water, and no sewage connection. Any house built there would have to be entirely self-sufficient. What looked, at first glance, like a severe constraint turned out to be a liberating brief: if you have to generate your own energy and collect your own water, you might as well do it properly.
Design and orientation: Arthur's insight
Our initial instinct was to orient the house north-to-south, following the conventional wisdom for a hillside site. Arthur persuaded us otherwise. His understanding of the land — decades of working it, reading its weather and light — led us to a west-to-east orientation that dramatically improved solar gain. It was a reminder that the farmer often knows things about a site that the architect does not.
The design drew on the vernacular of the Welsh upland farmhouse: simple massing, robust materials, a form that belonged to the landscape. What it contained was entirely of its moment: photovoltaic panels for electricity generation, a battery storage system, rainwater collection and filtration, and a multi-fuel biomass stove providing both space heating and hot water.
The whole project — land preparation, build, and all renewable energy equipment installed — came to £150,000. It was designed to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3, though its actual performance, as a house that generates all its own energy and collects all its own water, goes considerably further than that assessment captures.
The planning story
The key to the eventual planning success was a shift in framing. Previous applications had struggled to justify a new permanent dwelling in open countryside under standard planning policy. This time, the application fully acknowledged the agricultural necessity — the farm could not function without someone living on it — and the council, working with the RDP Energy team at Caerphilly County Borough Council, understood and supported that case.
Planning permission was granted in May 2011. After twenty years of trying, Arthur and Sue could finally build their home.
The minister's visit
The completed farmhouse attracted significant interest, both from the planning and sustainability communities and from the press. It was featured in i-build magazine under the headline "Life off-grid," and the South Wales Argus reported on the family's experience of living there — the independence, the connection to the land, and the practical reality of a life that most people only imagine.
The project was formally unveiled by the Welsh Government Minister, recognising it as a pioneering example of sustainable rural planning and off-grid living in Wales.
The RTPI Wales Planning Award
In 2013, Maes-yr-Onn won the RTPI Wales Planning Award — administered by RTPI Cymru to recognise, applaud, and publicise examples of good planning practice in Wales.
The award recognised not just the building, but the planning process that made it possible: a collaborative approach involving the Davies family, Caerphilly CBC's RDP Energy team, BRE, and SSE. It demonstrated that the planning system, used well, can enable exactly the kind of innovative, site-specific, sustainable development that the rural Welsh landscape needs — and that the system has too often refused.
"Pioneer projects such as the wholly off-grid eco-farmhouse at Maes yr Onn in Caerphilly, Wales, are showing how the farmhouse of the future may mean not only a whole new rural vernacular, but a way to help marginal hill farms survive."
Constructing Excellence in Wales — Maes-yr-Onn case study
For Arthur and Sue Davies, the award was a footnote. What mattered was the farm — which is still running, still sheep, still off-grid, still theirs.