Wye Valley Family Home
- location:
- Gloucestershire
- client:
- Private
- role:
- Architecture
- sector:
- Residential
- status:
- Planning
An open-plan family home that blurs the lines between inside and outside living
We have recently submitted a planning application for a contemporary house in Gloucestershire. The brief for this replacement dwelling is to produce an open-plan family home that has the ability to expand outside in summer, blurring the lines between inside and outside living, but also with the ability to provide intimacy in winter.
The result is a carefully considered 4-bedroom dwelling for our clients and their family, who all have a passion for the landscape and the wider environment in which they live.
Design Approach
Architecturally, the ground floor massing splits broadly into two and the plan slips to provide hierarchy between living spaces. Externally this provides a clear separation between the ‘front’ and ’back’ of house with a sense of enclosure and privacy to the terrace and a greater sense of arrival in the entrance court to the north of the dwelling. The first-floor bedrooms oversail the ground floor, providing solar shading to large expanses of glazing as well as creating architectural intrigue and suspense.
Pragmatically, our proposal respects the topography of the land, works with existing levels, retains and enhances the important landscape features and responds to the wider context of the site, by creating a built form that is of a scale and proportion to the land within which it sits. An environmental colour assessor has been appointed as part of the design team to explore the relationships of tone and hue between the house and its wider setting.
Low Energy & Durable
The design has been carefully developed utilising the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) to reduce the annual heating energy demand and will be constructed utilising a Fabric First approach. Materials have been selected to provide a robust but refined appearance that will age gracefully and require little ongoing maintenance. A long format brick is proposed to sit comfortably with the drystone walls within the landscape on the ground floor, whilst a standing seam anthra-zinc cladding completely envelopes the upper floor.
