BIGGEST CHALLENGE
“Kevin McCloud is absolutely right: building your own home is always going to cost twice as much.”
around 30 six-metre piles sunk into the ground of green sand and clay, with a concrete slab laid on top.
KITCHEN
Alan is a serious foodie, and has substituted the lack of restaurants in this very rural area with a stunning kitchen set around a restaurant-grade stove. “I love my food and I love cooking, and the kitchen will allow me to become a much better cook,” he explains. “I wanted a kitchen that enables me to do that but I didn’t want to be relegated to a room in the house away from where people were.”
He adds that many of the homes they have lived in were traditional terrace styles, with small kitchens tucked away and isolated. Their new home has a cooking eating and living space which is the hub of the home, happily sacrificing space in the bedrooms. The couple, who are now in their seventies, also needed to think about their future needs. “We had to think about access and a lot of the house has been designed with that in mind.” However, the only brief they gave to the architects was to maximise the living area. “The architects have been brilliant,” says Alan. “I can’t overstate how happy we are with what they came up with.” The “incredibly clever design” maximises all the spaces within the building, while carefully positioned skylights ood the interior with natural light. t is ust a very impressive layout.” Set on a sloping plot, the project (which they have named Modern Barn) is a cluster of three pitched volumes on a foundation plinth made from local Blue Lias stone. It is wrapped in larch timber and arranged along the site to minimise its profile and maimise space.
jan/feb 2024
The spaces are linked together in a linear
formation, connected via a central, stepped north/south axial corridor, producing views outward to the landscape at key moments. The naturally greying timber cladding wraps over the roof, concealing the gutters for a sharp outline, while the larch batons create a similarly crisp and linear facade. The marine-grade glass and metal railings protect it from the elements of living by the coast. Architect Phil Coffey explains some of the detailed elements of the build. The final design sits within the landscape to not detract from the surroundings. “Excavation was minimal to not disrupt the earth below.” The house was also designed for minimum visual impact from the town and coast and to ensure the new home retained the scale and character of the existing building.
The clever arrangement of the louvres on both ends of the home creates a textured facade. Inside, the overlapping of the timber cladding with the primary glazed walls establishes a playful threshold that generates captivating shadows.
“The focus of the home is on sea, sunlight and warmth of materiality: this is a rich internal landscape in which to live,” explains Phil. The interior of the house is linked to the exterior by the use of similar materials. The house’s oak panelling holds the warmth of the coastal light and provides a gallery wall space for the owners’ vibrant print collection. The interior is also a work of art, says Alan. The high ceilings and walls combine light oak veneer, plaster and neutral paint colours. The modern high-spec kitchen looks like a showpiece that has never been used – but this couldn’t be further from the truth, says Alan,
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