Project overview
Cotswolds
When previous clients were presented with the opportunity to buy a poor quality agricultural field on a hilltop in the Cotswolds National Landscape, they saw the chance to build their dream home. Paragraph 80 of national planning policy allows for one-off homes in the countryside that are ‘truly outstanding’, and this commitment to quality from the clients and design team led to the design of a modern country estate that could be an exemplar for landscape stewardship and for low-carbon architecture.
The site is low grade pasture land but is surrounded by a rich landscape of chalk hillsides and ancient woodland. By drawing these high-quality landscapes into the site it presents the opportunity to significantly enhance ecology, flora and fauna throughout.
The estate buildings are designed as a series of discrete circular enclosures, providing organic forms for the landscape to weave through, whilst drawing upon historic precedents of dry stone walls, neolithic mounds, classical country houses, and modernist landscape pavilions. The journey through this landscape of built forms culminates in the main house, a square form in a circular enclosure with a central courtyard at its heart. The layering of purist geometry provides an order and sense of calm overlooking the new ecologically rich landscape. This tapestry of references creates a resonant architecture which is designed to avoid the use of concrete and steel, focussing on low-carbon building methods and surpassing national embodied carbon targets.
