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alk up and down Trinity Church Road looking for the new-build house and you will likely waste an entire day trying to spot it. Nestled away on the water side of this historical lane is a brand-new white cottage, which embraces traditional Bermudian architecture and looks like it has been there forever. Named after the winter resident that nests on the cliffs below, Kingfisher Cottage is built on a cliff edge overlooking Harrington Sound. It is a two-storey, one-bedroom home with off-street parking, open plan kitchen and living area, two full bathrooms, additional flexible living area, considerable outdoor entertaining space and even an outdoor shower. The property has water access via concrete stairs which lead all the way down the cliff to a landing area. Finished in June 2022, the property took a year to build and, because of the steep, sloping nature of the site, had to take full advantage of all up to the minute BUILDINGBERMUDA2023
engineering techniques available in Bermuda. The cottage was designed by architect Geoff Parker with support from architectural technologist, Nick Strong, who also oversaw all the construction.
“The site had quite restrictive zoning requirements,” explains Parker. “The main restriction was a 600 square foot maximum site coverage. That’s generally pretty small, even for a cottage. “We designed the house as two storeys on the 600 square feet of buildable area and extended the lower floor under the required on-site parking area. Overall, we managed to achieve almost 1,600 square feet of usable house by using the slope of the site creatively, and it still appears from the roadside as a tiny one storey cottage.” Before excavation began at the top,
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