A Queen Anne House

We designed this new house for a generous parkland setting on the beautiful Suffolk/Essex borders, in Constable country.

The clients had a clear vision for a country house in the classic Queen Anne/early Georgian tradition, with high ceilings and tall sash windows, stone dressings and soft red brick walls set above a raised basement storey. They had enjoyed developing initial thoughts about plans and elevations using pencil and graph paper – a rewarding process that was extremely helpful for us in providing a visual brief.

We worked closely together to take forward their brief and create the final design for the house and outbuildings, resolving many interesting design issues along the way and enjoying a gentle and thoroughly fulfilling engagement.

It was gratifying when the project, despite its considerable scale, received planning approval under delegated approval in 2017, and we are now commencing with construction drawings and wider detailed site design.

A Neo-Classical House

This is a Paragraph 80 design for a fine site in South Cambridgeshire. The site has an interesting planning history, with an approved design for a highly contemporary building. Our client had ultimately decided that he would prefer to build a classical house and approached our practice to design a replacement.

Drawing on the neo-classical architectural tradition that finds deep roots in nearby Cambridge, and in the East Anglian work of Sir John Soane and his successors, we developed a plan for a central block with two flanking wings, designed in a restrained and austere language, suitable for the plain and itself austere Cambridgeshire countryside.

Walls are in lime render with natural stone dressings and construction was to be in a highly innovative hemcrete.  The house sits in a regenerative, productive landscape, with large groves of fast-growing coppice woodland which provides fuel for the heating systems.

Initial engagement with South Cambridgeshire planning officers suggested that the council felt that a classical design was not appropriate for the site and the Paragraph 80 route, and our client decided not to proceed further.

New Georgian Farmhouses

The practice delights in designing smaller houses and over several years we have designed a large number of simple Georgian and Regency farmhouses for rural sites in the south and west of England. Some of these buildings have been for private clients, others for developers – where we have obtained exceptional planning approvals by winning the confidence of planning officers that the right design will fit into sensitive rural locations without harming the countryside.

Often clients approach our practice with limited budgets for build and materials. Our wide experience with the commercial development sector allows us to combine the highest-end design skills with a practical approach to materials, construction and simple forms to make very beautiful, cost-efficient houses – that feel completely as if they belong, and are right for place.