Quarry Wood
Extension providing a new external space for a Modernist house

The existing house was originally a wartime RAF lookout position built into an old stone quarry overlooking Bristol from the Cotswold escarpment on the edge of the Bath. It was converted and extended in the 1970s in a unique design which very much reflected the forward looking client at the time.

The house is “upside down, with the entrance and living rooms all on the upper level, and bedrooms below. The living spaces did not therefore have direct access to any external space except for a large balcony on the (very exposed and windy) North side. The new extension is a sun-facing outside space linked with the living room, with a laundry room and gym below.

The new extension has been constructed from insitu board-marked, waterproof concrete, which allowed for minimal excavation (no working space behind the new wall) and a polished concrete structural slab – no waterproof membrane. The whole structure is insulated from the inside.

Upper Farm
An artist’s studio in South Gloucestershire

The new studio for its artist owner is a replacement for a timber stable building on the edge of a Cotswold village with a typical context of stone buildings with stone tiled roofs. The Client is an artist and printmaker requiring a series of daylit spaces to carry out a variety of wet and dry processes ranging from design to sewing and etching / printing.

The building typology adopted is clearly legible as a simple barn form, appropriate for the setting at the interface between the domestic gardens of the village and the open agricultural landscape. The form also works well for the studio use, with an abundance of controlled daylight from the roof, and inspirational views out over the meadow to the North-west. A single window in the South East facing gable picks out a more focussed view.

The structure is a simple series of expressed portal frames made from LVL timber. The external materials palette continues with the aspiration of simplicity. A fibre cement roof on top of larch boarded walls speak of simple vernacular barns, but with the careful detailing of a less agricultural finish. The glazing is a repetitive module, but with an enlarged section of glazing in the central bay – referencing the barn tradition of a large central opening. An inset entrance door is the only element with a non native material accent colour clearly indicating the entrance.

Internally the Client’s brief called for white surfaces, which is given some relief and a suggestion of materiality by the expressed portal frames. The main volume is semi divided by a series of smaller servant spaces hosting the WC, plant and kitchenette as well as a small fume cupboard room.

The building is heated by an airsource heat pump and underfloor heating within the power floated concrete floor.

Park House
A contemporary new house using traditional materials.

This new family home is a replacement dwelling in the Greenbelt, replacing an unremarkable series of existing buildings which occupied a prominent corner in the village Conservation area. The challenge was to design a building which responds positively to the village context, respecting the defining characteristics of the village, whilst at the same time creating an uncompromised contemporary piece of architecture, responding positively to its physical and its social context. The proposal retains one small fragment of the existing buildings which was originally a public “Reading Room” built in 1885 “for the use of men and boys of the village”. The design responds to the public realm with a series of steep (50deg) pitched gables with stone copings – familiar forms and materials, but with non-traditional detailing around openings. On the other side it responds to the private gardens with a much more open and transparent façade, connecting the living spaces to the garden and open countryside beyond. The dominant material is the Cotswold stone roof which unifies the whole composition, the glass and metal panels of the private side provide a counterpoint, which emerge subtly in the detailing around the openings, and in the staircase “turret” which provides a lookout from the private interior to the public realm. The house design has comfortably exceeded the requirements of Code for Sustainable Homes (Level 4), primarily through the use of simple passive energy design principles, but will go further still by the use of various active energy technologies.

Withycombe
A radical refurbishment and house extension

Located in an enviable position within the Green belt close to Bath, Withycombe sits on the side of a steeply sloping valley with panoramic views to the south. The original house was constructed in the 1930’s and extended in the 1960’s. Our client wished to modernise and extend the house which had been empty for 10 years. Working within a restrictive planning context, we developed a proposal for a replacement house, which was in effect a radical comprehensive refurbishment. This approach gained planning approval and our involvement through the detailed design and construction phases has continued, with the house due for completion later in 2019. The house features large areas of glazing and extensive terrace and balcony areas to make the most of the open prospect.

Middle Stoke
A cantilevered house

This scheme replaced a 1960s house overlooking the Avon Valley at Limpley Stoke. The site is in an exceptionally attractive location but did present a number of challenges – the far reaching views out of the site are almost due North, making it quite difficult to get sunlight to penetrate the plan. The original house was in an unsafe condition, being sited on an unstable slope at the southern edge of the site.

The new house has to sit closer to the Northern boundary of the site, but views out over and down the Avon Valley are made possible by cantilevering the upper storey off a rubble stone base. The upper storey culminates in the master bedroom and bathroom which will have unparalleled views out over the landscape. The garden has been designed to slip over and under the house, with green roofs and covered terraces, embedding the building into the landscape.

The simple rectangular volume of the upper storey is clad in charred timber battens (which were change from the aluminium cladding which was part of the original planning approval.

Structural Engineer: Format Engineers

Landscape design: B:D Landscape / Greenhalgh Landscape Architects

Photography: by fotohaus

Chilliswood
A contemporary and innovative home

This new four-bedroom house is located on the footprint of the existing 1980s dwelling it replaces. Located in the Greenbelt and offering panoramic views across the Limpley Stoke valley, the house is designed as two simple interconnecting volumes that make use of the site topography. The split-level accommodation places the open plan living space at its heart with a connection to the garden, and the more private master and guest bedrooms above and children’s rooms at the top. Featuring an internal heat recovery system, it will be constructed using a masonry plinth and heavily insulated timber frame (clad with horizontal and vertical cedar boarding) to achieve an sympathetic, economic and sustainable solution.

Freshford School
Proposal for a School Expansion

Designscape Architects prepared a feasibility report for the expansion of the school
accommodation. Despite being a rural school, it has no onsite playing field and only five
classrooms, but seven year groups. The school had the possibility of acquiring some
adjacent land as a playing field and needed to explore the potential in future of adding
two classrooms.
Our proposal succeeded to link the new playing field via an amphitheatre outdoor area,
and replaced the playground space given over to the classrooms with an elevated play-
deck on the classroom roofs, linking with existing first floor classrooms. The proposal
also sought to address other issues such as access and security and proposed some
ideas for parking and pick–up space.

Innox Lodge
Bringing the garden into a historic home

Located on the edge of the village with wide views across the rural landscape, this unlisted Victorian house was recently renovated by its owners. They wished to add a new garden room that would link the kitchen with the surrounding landscape and provide a place where the family can gather informally. The contemporary design of the new addition remains sympathetic to its setting through the use of traditional materials including bath stone ashlar and pre-formed metal sheets that match those of the original house. In advance of the construction of the new space a number of alterations to the house were made including the creation of a large opening through to the kitchen and a new staircase into converted basement rooms below.

Twinneys
A new sustainable home in the Greenbelt

This award winning new house is built on the site of a former piggery and lies within the Bath & Bristol Green Belt in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The design is conceived as a low-lying timber and glass structure supported on a terraced landscape, to blur the boundary between building and terrain. Sleeping accommodation is situated on the lower ground floor of the house with the entrance and open-plan kitchen, dining and lounge spaces above. Three terraces open out from the living areas affording panoramic views across the valley. The thermal mass and high performance of the building envelope is complemented by solar hot water panels to provide a low energy solution. A partially autonomous artist’s studio and gallery is built into the hillside to the rear.

Court Farm Barn
A Listed Barn Conversion

Situated adjacent to the Farm House, the Grade II* listed former threshing barn had fallen into a state of disrepair and the proposal was developed to repair and convert the structure to provide ancillary accommodation to the main house, to include a home-work space, kitchen, bathroom and guest bedrooms. The new functions are contained within a series of free standing white timber boxes to the west end, leaving two- thirds of the original double-height volume intact. The existing modern steel frame is utilized to support the new roof structure without distributing the extra load onto the historic walls. As part of the first phase of works, a new wood-burning boiler in an adjacent outbuilding provides heating and hot water to both the farm house and converted barn.