“How do you create a family home in such a way to allow the money to flow into the areas that make the biggest impact?” - Matt Loader, architect
be entered into at any stage of the planning process, and can include financial contributions towards schools, roads, transport, the public realm and affordable housing. In David and Louisa’s case, this slowed down their application to finance the build. After several years they managed to get the Section 75 removed but by this time, the world was a different place, and financing a 350 m property was now out of the question.
CONCISE DESIGN “In 2018, after a recommendation, we approached architects Matt Loader and Iain Monteith,” David recalls. “We gave Matt the remit to build a house fit for purpose for to how we wanted to live, and the lifestyle we have.” Following this brief, his design was a fraction of the size the couple originally had planning permission for. Indeed, the 185 m² footprint he initially agreed with David and Louisa was reduced further to 155 m². Our first discussions were really about how to make David and Louisa’s budget go as far as it possibly could,” Matt remembers. “What does value for money look like when it comes to architecture? How do you create a building that is a family home but is designed in such a way to allow the money to flow into the areas that make the biggest impact?” Matt’s concept was to eschew the traditional layout of a family home with bedrooms upstairs and reception rooms downstairs. “If you don’t have a garage within the house there’s quite a bit of ‘fat’ in the property, and that was the case with the previous plans. The bedrooms were upstairs with rather palatial living areas downstairs.”
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A more efficient plan was agreed upon by moving one of the four bedrooms downstairs with the further three bedrooms located on the first floor along with the family bathroom. These were the core principles for the actual building, but Matt also had to take into account the rural location, the views over the 25-acre farm and to ensure that the new build was connected to, but somewhat separate from the business. “The house needed to embrace the landscape and take advantage of the wonderful views and be cosy and warm when the wind was blowing.”
SENSIBLE SAVINGS One of Matt’s solutions to keeping costs down was in the choice of materials. “Render, metal roofing in particular, and to a degree, timber cladding, are not expensive materials. The question we asked ourselves was once you make a decision on what something is made out of, how do you make it the best possible version of that?” David’s original choice was for a stone facade which was, he recalls, prohibitively expensive: “I really wanted a stone gable end so instead, Matt suggested two different styles of render – rough and smooth. It’s worked really well, it’s quite unique and contrasts well with the black painted larch.”
Another suggestion that Matt proposed was for the profile 3’ roof which avid wanted to amend to the same profile as the existing barns and stables. I didn’t think it would fit in but actually now I might change the other roofs to the same profile An external detail that certainly stands out is
jan/feb 2023 LOW POINT
“I was skiing in Italy and stopped halfway down the mountain to take a call from Matt and he told me the proposed contract price. I thought well that’s never going to happen; time to buy a new caravan! I’m pleased to say once we returned home, Matt managed to reduce the footprint, changed things about and eventually the price almost halved!”
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