A New Home - Suspended In Space
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time”.
- Leo Tolstoy
We are delighted to share our latest home to complete on site. Castle High, a self-build project, built by our client for his family over 10 years. This project is a testament to hard work, persistence and patience.
The Situation
After a storm - Imagine returning home on a remote outpost on the edge of West Wales to find your front bedroom roof wasn’t where it’s supposed to be but in the next field. This would be a little disconcerting for most of us, yet, about a decade ago that's exactly what happened to our client, following a series of violent storms that battered their old exposed farmhouse. In addition to rising energy costs from heating a thermally inefficient house, our clients realised they needed a radical rethink of their situation.
The Search
After much soul-searching, the answer seemed obvious. The decision was simple, to hunker down on a beautiful site and build a multi-generational home. A home that stood defiant, happy to brunt the forces of nature and the ever-increasing wind in a changing climate..
Our clients approached us back in 2010 to develop a master plan for their smallholding, complete with stone farm buildings and a courtyard. The positions of these old buildings often respond to the wind as they shield their occupants from exposure and driving rain. These old wise structures speak a language of pragmatism and necessity.
The adjacent existing 50’s home, to the East of the Courtyard, lacked the integrity and wisdom of the old farm buildings nearby. It ignored the importance of the courtyard. It’s seemingly random position on site left the courtyard open to the dominant South Westerly Winds. Nothing could grow within this secret enclave and it laid dormant for many years.
At one time this courtyard would have been teeming with life, shielded by an even older farmhouse or high wall, giving much-needed protection to what could have been a productive garden. We worked in our studio to bring back this fractured court.
A simple and minimal home would eventually emerge - in a silent form. Our proposal provided an open-plan living area on the ground floor, framing animated trees along the garden’s boundary. Everything is in motion with constant wind. The architecture frames this motion.
At first floor a corridor looks into the courtyard, while the children’s bedrooms dance along the outer facade, windows angle towards the view. Study desks are integrated underneath these windows, and act as a unified component, creating a cosy space to work. This staggered plan ensures each child can be inspired by views of the sea from their room, there is no evidence of hierarchy here. The master bedroom is then hidden to the West, looking directly towards the Irish Sea.
Transparency from the inner courtyard to the site beyond was important. This creates an infinite feeling of flow, layered between the inner courtyard and the outer garden.
Within the secluded courtyard, there is a feeling of reassurance, with the house guarding and keeping the wind at bay. Knowing full well that behind those oaks, just beyond there is nothing but ocean and when the seasons turn to autumn - in the not-too-distant future, the wind will come, and this time, the home will be ready.
Resilience Through Materiality
The home itself is built from white fair-faced concrete, inspired by the enduring nature of a smooth pebble found along the shoreline. These glacial debris reminds us of what mass can endure through deep time, yet - through aeons of storms and chaos, they still feel perfectly smooth to the touch.
Off Grid Systems
8Kw solar.
2 x 1 Kw wind turbines.
20kw battery storage.
Natural well on site.
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