Challenge

Together with the clients, we identified two principles to drive the new work; a deep affection for the established rear garden, and the family kitchen table. We developed the design from this simple, but beautiful brief and the fact that during the previous twenty years of use, these two elements had coalesced into being the same thing, with most meals eaten at a large table in the garden.

Response

The new Tree House additions to the existing house offers an all-weather version of this pattern of eating in the garden. Then above this space the main bedroom makes possible a new appreciation of the garden from within the tree canopy and relates to the upper terraced levels of the garden which climbs steeply up towards the rear boundary.

The approach to working sensitively with what previously existed extended to materials and meant sandstone and bricks from the demolished rear structures were re-used in the new structures. The result is a small, but perfect house which is representative of this family’s core values of sustainability, family, and quality over quantity.