Equestrian HouseContemporary New Home in the Greenbelt’
The Equestrian house is a proposal for a new dwelling with associated equestrian facilities in the Green Belt on a 20 acre site, just outside Windsor. It was submitted for planning under the NPPF clause 55 criteria. The brief includes a family house along with equestrian facilities suitable for either professional use or for a family with horses. A Landscape Management plan, along with various sustainable technologies were also introduced in order to enhance the existing landscape and context and contribute towards the Bracknell Forest Biodiversity Action Plan. Sustainable technologies such as the installation of PV’s, ground source heat pump and rain water collection are key elements in the design of this equestrian house.
The Beacon A contemporary House in the World Heritage City
This scheme replaces an unremarkable 1930s house on an exceptional site, at the top of a steep south facing, wooded site overlooking the City of Bath. The site is in a special and spectacular location and demands a bold and high-quality scheme to take advantage of the opportunities that it offers.
The proposed new house sits almost exactly on the footprint of the existing house so that the wooded site can be maintained with minimal impact. In the summer the living rooms and the extensive balcony cantilever out into the tree canopies. In the winter the trees still screen the views from the city below towards this sensitive site, but the trees become a veil through which the city lights below can be glimpsed.
A drystone wall plinth forms the base of the building, with lightweight framed elements cantilevering off this base and reaching out into the tree canopies, and towards the sun and the views. The context of the site is more wooded hillside than any nearby buildings, so the base of the building references the predominant local building material, translating it from the urban ashlar walling of the nearby terraces, into the more naturalistic rubble walling, and the dark grey fibre cement cladding, partly overclad with cedar battens to reference the woods – predominantly dark and shady, with vertical timber elements.
Sun House An experimental rural home
The house sits at the top of the Claverton Valley on the outskirts of Bath, and replaces a low-grade mobile home. The design is a response to the woodland setting and arranges accommodation into two distinct elements. The main volume is clad with rough-cut oak boarding and contains the entrance and kitchen on the ground floor and living room above. A second, single storey wing is faced with oxidised steel panels and contains sleeping areas that open directly into the garden. The grass roof of the bedroom wing provides a terrace to the adjacent first floor space. The house employs experimental construction and technology, incorporating rainwater harvesting, passive and active solar energy, and is virtually free from pvc materials.