Engine, when he gave a talk locally, and asked if he would be interested in taking on the project. However, with the firm normally specialising in larger projects, they offered it to architect Paul Cashin to deliver after they had taken it through planning; he formerly worked for Design Engine but had formed his own practice in 2012. This being a very early project for him, Cashin had little in the way of relevant schemes to show the clients in order to convince them of his credentials. However, a two-way relationship of trust developed between architect and client during the early meetings which pervaded the whole project, including the dealings with the building contractor (Wickham-based Baker Newman, recommended by Paul) further down the line.
The 250 m2 footprint of the new house would
be the same as the combined area of the cottage, garage and barn it replaces. With the owners putting their faith in Paul, he pushed for a low-profile, flat-roofed contemporary building – and importantly, one which made the most of the great views.
Choosing a local builder proved to be a bonus, with Baker Newman delivering the goods in terms of the attention to detail needed for a high quality finish. Paul is full of praise for their work, also the fact that they were “really flexible about the costs, and the programme.” Having originally only planned to take on the building’s frame and exterior, after being introduced to the owners Baker Newman ended up doing the
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whole project, “and did a great job.” Having designed an unconventional modern structure however, getting through planning would be an unenviable task. It was refused at the first time of asking, to no-one’s surprise: “You just don’t get to do that in the South Downs,” says Paul. It went to appeal and got through with the help of a planning consultant, who made two key arguments, firstly that it was a replacement dwelling – helping to deal with the problem that it was much bigger than the cottage.
A further argument that helped swing the balance was that the rule around a new building not being any bigger than what it replaced was based around creating affordable housing in the area, but “no-one was going to be able to claim this was affordable housing stock,” says Cashin. He says the consultant made the case that this effectively rendered the policy void in this situation. The architect has advice for others facing a similar challenge: “You don’t argue against the policy, you argue with the reasons behind it.”
BEDDING DOWN
Inspired by contemporary European residential architecture, the architects created a striking, minimalist form that bedded down into the hillside site, with trees sitting behind it. The house’s long single-storey section replaces the barn and double garage, and attached, sitting at the top of the site where the cottage
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