New brookside home in Cambridgeshire.
The brief for this project was to create a new house for a live-in carer, ancillary to a large home in the green belt. The parti revolved around creating a graded ‘procession’ from public open space into seclusion and privacy., accentuating varied natural features on the site. A steeply sloped, overgrown and wooded bank onto a brook was chosen to site the house, with the upper level straddling the open field and the secluded brook, with the lower level entirely secluded within reeds, trees, and water. The overall aesthetic for the house derived from the main building on the site.
The upper level capitalises on open views across open fields and farmlands, allowing in as much natural light as possible for the ‘public’ area of the house. The lower level is intentionally smaller, darker, and perhaps even slightly claustrophobic in design, to provide a natural sense of security and seclusion. This sense of confinement is relieved by long views across the brookside.
