Carpentry Jointed Green Oak Frame of living wing framing the Landscape the Vets work
A big Barn for sleeping framed in a lesser amount of Carpentry jointed Green oak
High level bracing to keep the solar facade free
raising of a ...Solar Barn House
A house broken down into 2 wings carefully perched over the village - "As if it has always been there"
John and Helen Burnside were a local veterinary family with a very honed view of this North Devon Landscape.
They found the village of Woodtown amidst the fray of their work and decided that was where they were going to live and bring up their kids. They were embedded already... looking after all the local animals in the fields, farms and houses around the village.
They could not find a house to their liking, so they bagged a wee 70s bungalow. They thought it through, removed and recycled most of it.
In effect they had a serviced plot to make good with a new Build.
They requested a functional House that would not ring any alarm bells that they could control through Construction themselves . They wanted it to be green Oak framed and built by Carpenter Oak + woodland.
Andrew designed them a house of two wings - One for sleeping and one for living . The two distinct parts - one quiet and one noisy were conjoined by a Porch, deck and a sky pond that bounced light into the expressed double height volumes of the living wing.
John needed to dress down after some days in the field and he was given his own entry through a Utility or Mud room.- Once presentable he could appear in the main body of the house without any trouble.
John was more than commodious and understood single cellular buildings... he had spent his Summers on Saint Kilda looking after the ancient breeds of sheep there. This was Woodtown and he wanted a wooden house that was legible in form.
He wanted it made robustly of natural materials.
This was Andrews first house in Green Oak and he learned a lot from Roderick James in his Carpentry Yard in South Devon in process.
Despite the preponderance of pseudo Georgian new houses in this conservation village; which add little to the character of the place, we needed to steer this little house through a heritage Lobby minefield.
It was developed with a quiet agricultural and Barn aesthetic to match the village.... Mostly.
It slipped through Planning positively and mostly unnoticed. The clients commented " it sits very contentedly in its relation to the village and looks like its always been there ... but more importantly it lets us live our sometimes quite grubby outdoor lifestyle effortlessly '
It heats itself 7 months a year via a piped underfloor heating Coil.
Lovely Project Lovely Family
Everybody happy.
Form follows function.
Positioning of wings tuned to Sun
Definition of arrivals + public face vs private Garden
A bungalow out of time
A conservation village ???