A distinctive five-bedroom house designed to sit comfortably in its unique woodland setting. A key design principle is the connection of the house to the landscape through glimpsed vistas and links reflecting the natural setting with its colors and materials to enhance the conservation area.
The building’s linear form opens up to a southern aspect and views in to woodland along both principal elevations. The plan of the building is simple, with a key axis creating a divide through the building where circulation and links to the garden occur, separating living and ancillary spaces. Wherever you are in the building, you have a visual link with the garden and distant views to its green setting.
A limited palette of high-quality materials has been chosen for aesthetic merits, robustness, and ability to reflect the natural surroundings. We have used zinc cladding, crisp frameless glass balustrades, Purbeck stone, cedar louvers, and cladding. Together, these materials create a simple, elegant house.
The building is designed and constructed from materials that are almost entirely recyclable at the end of the building’s life. Offsite construction of the steel frame led to efficient and rapid construction, thus avoiding wasted time on site.
The building is highly insulated and has under-floor heating. The solid concrete floors act as heat storage for the slow release of warmth in winter and help with cooling in the summer. Large areas of the south-facing glazing take advantage of the solar heat gain.
The lower ground floor is formed of Purbeck stone with deep-raked joints giving the appearance of a dry stone wall. The plinth wall merges seamlessly with the retaining wall and landscaping. Steps take the visitor from the parking level up to the podium.
An upper ground floor, formed between plinth and beam, consists of floor-to-ceiling sliding windows. At the sides and rear, the retaining wall is back-filled to form solid walls with clerestory glazing.
Steel-framed zinc-clad element consisting of vertical standing seam and irregular cladding modules. Steel beam sections define the key living accommodation and are in-filled with floor-to-ceiling sliding windows with timber louver screens to reduce solar gain and articulate the façade.
Other features include: rooftop solar panels, interior swimming pool, and a bridge leading to the landscaped rear woodland garden.