And so, within minutes, they found themselves £160,000 poorer and owners of an uninspiring 1947 bungalow called Penlea which had a great potential, but no planning permission.
“It was an exhilarating experience,” says Nicki. “We knew we had to have it. As an architect, Ruairidh had the vision to design a house that would sit perfectly in the landscape and maximise views in all directions.” The small village of Hope Cove sits in the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and boasts two beaches. Many of the houses sit on the slope down towards the cove, and the unexceptionable post-war houses are slowly being renovated
or replaced with architect-designed, bespoke homes. Top of the stylish newcomers is Nicki and Ruairidh’s Runic House. Cleverly built into the natural steep slope of the land, the stunning uninterrupted views of the cove and the countryside behind it didn’t come without effort and some seriously clever design. “There’s about seven storeys between the top of the plot and the bottom of the plot,” explains Nicki. Despite its size and being set across four levels, no part of the house sits above the height of the chimney stack of the previous building on the site. This design ingenuity is one of the reasons the house passed through planning without a
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