The site of Hitchambury Farm near Taplow, has remained disused for much of the past decade; occupied by derelict farm buildings and overgrown vegetation.
We were approached by our clients to design a contemporary, 4/5 bedroom home to be embedded within this sensitive site.
Having already maximised the eco-potential of their current house a few miles up the road, environmental sustainability was at the core of our clients’ brief; aiming to go beyond the Passivhaus standard.
Situated some distance from the village boundary of Taplow, the proposed dwelling will be judged under the strict new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) Paragraph 55 relating to the exceptional design quality of new homes in the countryside.
The house is designed around various viewpoints surrounding the site, including ‘private’ views from a neighbouring golf course and Grade II listed manor house, and ‘public’ views from a footpath and public road to the south east. As a result, a striking cantilevered box dominates the view of the upper ground floor, whilst the publicly invisible elements of the house focus on addressing the immediate context of the site.
We came up with an upside-down layout for the house maximising the views to the south from the ‘daytime’ spaces (including kitchen, dining, sitting room and a study), and semi-submerging the ‘night-time’ spaces (bedrooms, cinema room, bathrooms) of the lower ground floor into the earth to minimise the visual impact of the house as a whole.