“Our new home is a private sanctuary. It enables and supports our enjoyment of a reflective and contemplative next life-phase within the context of a small rural community.”

Our clients, self-described as being in the autumn years of their lives, were relocating and downsizing away from an expansive rural property. Conscious of reflecting this period of their lives, they hoped the home might capture the qualities and atmosphere of autumnal light, colour and texture.

The primary design response was to position the house as a discreet volume within the centre of the site, allowing our clients to envelop the home in a new garden filled with a number of trees relocated from their previous property. A clear geometry was adopted for the plan and section, allowing continuous links to the garden, including the ability to read the full length and width of the site from within.

The design process began with a single wall gesture, a brickwork element that formed a long cup or recess. This textural wall gesture was arranged to define the boundaries of the home and of the individual rooms, with the recess of each providing a nesting place for seating, a study, kitchen etc. Always returning inwards, this repeating motif formed a thickness to the home’s exterior, providing a deepened reveal to every opening.