CONTACTS/ SUPPLIERS
ARCHITECTS
Design Engine/Paul Cashin Architects
CONTRACTOR Baker Newman Building
LANDSCAPE DESIGNER Andy McIndoe
LIGHTING DESIGNER Intelligent Lighting Solutions
Although no longer mandatory, the building has been designed to Code 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. The 8 metre stairwell provides night-time ‘purge’ ventilation via an openable roof light and a tilt/turn window on the north wall of the ground floor, providing a chimney effect. Water for the property is supplied from a combination of a borehole and an aquifer.
INTERNAL LAYOUT
With great views of the open countryside to the north and west, the design provided large amounts of glazing, particularly for the ground floor living areas. A corridor runs along the southern side of the ground floor, open to the living spaces and forming a ‘spine’ leading from the front door to the stairs. An uncovered car port to the west of the ground floor gives the potential to convert into a further reception room in future.
The house’s layout overall is somewhat open- plan, but also provides “a series of distinct zones,” says architect Paul Cashin. Ascending the stairs, the rooms “increase in intimacy and privacy,” culminating in the first-floor master suite. The split level of the ground floor, due to the gradient, helps to signal more of a ‘private’ area; up just a few steps of the staircase are the two ground floor ensuite bedrooms (one is currently being used as a home office). There are two further bedrooms with ensuites on the first floor.
The free-flowing ground floor space is framed by a kitchen at one end and a fireplace at the other. Cashin says the design serves the major requirements of modern homeowners: “To do all of your cooking and eating and leisure in one area and move between spaces easily, that’s what people want.”
The fireplace and bathrooms feature bespoke joinery, and despite the fact that the property is not overlooked, the owners wanted curtains, partly to minimise heat loss. Cashin says they also help to protect the property: “they can shut the whole house down when they are away travelling, which they do a lot.” He is a firm
issue 01 2021
advocate of bespoke curtains over blinds, being “much more luxurious,” and believes they are seeing a comeback as a preferred option for contemporary properties.
The glazing to the bathrooms is one of the most daring parts of the design, being completely unobscured, and floor to ceiling in the case of the master ensuite. However, as Paul Cashin says, “there’s no one to look in!” The addition of some ‘brise soleil’ external shading does protect the modesty of users of the freestanding bath from the road to the north west, otherwise there’s an uninterrupted view of the landscape.
One of the most visible examples of the interior’s precise detailing is the timber-treaded staircase, which has a recessed handrail plus a shadow gap. This provides an elegantly understated visual result, and an unimpeded view up the stairs, plus the practical benefit of avoiding snagging clothes! The stairs are embedded with soft LEDs to gently illuminate the stairwell. “It took a lot of time to get right, and a lot of conversations with the builder.” There are also shadow gaps around the home’s full height doors, rather than architraves, adding to the clean lines of the spaces.
The interior is painted a “yellowish white,” to the homeowners’ preference, a choice which Paul Cashin admits “slightly worried” the designers. However, they reportedly “really like” the colour now; Cashin says it helps in softening the minimalist feel that the design has produced, such as the level ceilings throughout. The owners have provided their own varied range of furniture, acquired from their global travels. In terms of landscaping, it is still a work in progress, however the owners have planted what’s “almost an orchard,” says the architect, admitting it “will take a few seasons to bed in.” The external areas around the previous buildings were very overgrown, and the topsoil was not great, so the lawned areas have been returfed and resown.
TRUST IN THE TEAM Trust characterised the relationships on this
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