Second planning approval of the year with a new contemporary family home.
The site is situated just outside Ramsden Conservation Area, near the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The new four-bedroom family home includes a garage workshop and garden barn to provide additional flexible living. The new home, set on a sloped topography, takes advantage of stunning views across the adjacent mature landscape and sensitively nestles itself within the landscape to omit impact from Ramsden High Street. The family of buildings descend away from the entrance to further add to the seclusion of the site.
The relationship between local built and natural forms informed the proposed layout by emulating the origins of the settlement of farmsteads within forest clearings typically found alongside the Roman Road. How the articulation relates to the site and interacts within the landscape was fundamental to the design, with particular attention on how the proposal presents itself within distant views.
The considered placement of spaces on site has established and improved the connection between the main house and the landscape. The structures are carefully orientated to address the site and its south-westerly prospect over the village valley. The three buildings coalesce around a small courtyard, open to the garden along the south-eastern side, creating a sheltered sun trap. The arrangement reveals a more intimate scale, glimpsed through mature trees, with a thoughtfully composed domestic garden responding to the needs of everyday family life. The existing mature perimeter trees to the boundary will be preserved alongside the conservation of the meadow on site to enhance the existing gardens and biodiversity.
Project Architect Matt Iliffe adds “I’m really excited to get planning approval for Oakdene. It’s been a pleasure working with a such special site in a beautiful place. We have been able to draw inspiration from a rich local architectural history, the peaceful woodland clearing, and the rolling westerly view over the valley. The placement of forms looks to reengage the landscape and define a variety of external spaces that embrace the house and permeate the sequence of rooms inside. It’s great to get this over the line and we’re looking forward to taking it onto site.”
The approved design pursues a sustainable approach through the incorporation of regional, low carbon building materials and environmentally conscious ideas such as; renewable energy sources, solar shading, robust thermal envelope, and harmonising with its natural surroundings. The proposal will look to reuse as much of the existing deconstructed house materials as achievable.
The palette will be locally sourced where possible, rooted in tradition and true to its Ramsden roots. The main house is built from contextual oolitic limestone, with a traditional stone tiled roof. The front elevation is more defensive and formal, whilst the rear elevation, overlooking the valley, is more open. In contrast, the garden barn is clad in charred timber, offering a more contemporary contrasting material whilst connecting to the landscape.
The ground floor plan is organised with the main living spaces in enfilade along the view over the valley. Smaller enclosed rooms are situated at the front of the house. A double-height entrance space and stairway at the centre of the house culminate in a double-height dining space. Three generous dual-aspect bedrooms plus a master suite are situated one at each corner of the house on the first floor. The master suite enjoys views over the meadow to the valley beyond, with a dedicated dressing area.
The resulting family home is a contemporary interpretation of the local vernacular with the form and materiality directly referencing the local architecture prominent in the Ramsden Village.
