Project: Cheeran House, Lower Basildon
A family home for two hospital consultants on a modest site, but with the opportunity to incorporate a 0.25Ha former walled garden, once part of the Basildon Park Estate set within the North Wessex Downs AONB. The site is set back from the busy A329 behind a recently built pair of semi-detached houses and an adjacent Grade II listed Old Schoolhouse. The design concept is essentially that of a courtyard house, with accommodation wrapping two sides – one side attaching itself to the walled garden.
The house forms part of the walled garden encroaching into it, with part of the wall is rebuilt using reclaimed bricks, to form the north elevation of the house. First floor accommodation is expressed as a cedar clad ‘box’ floating above the brick wall above clerestorey glazing, and a chimney anchors the composition to the site. Bedrooms at first floor open up views across the garden, while a master bedroom suite sits at the west end of the box exploiting distant views uphill, across the open fields. A lobby opens into a hall with coat storage - a tv/playroom sits to one side looking north. The circulation continues past a staircase to an open-planned kitchen-dining-living space some 13.5 metres long.
The staircase serves a corridor with low level windows lending views down into the courtyard and a family bathroom to one end. A master bedroom suite sits at the west end with distant uphill views across open fields – two bedrooms face onto the walled garden, while a fourth bedroom faces east. Ground floor walls are proposed in flint facing to reflect the adjacent listed Schoolhouse, while the north wall is in reclaimed brick, forming part of the walled garden enclosure. The upper volume is a timber-framed construction, clad in western red cedar treated with a transparent UV filter to avoid greying. Windows are to be anodised aluminium in a dark grey/bronze colour. The walled garden will become a wildflower meadow with orchard tree planting to supplement the existing trees.
To the south side, a single-storey wing contains a cloakroom and utility room, with study and guest bedroom suite incorporating bathroom and dressing room. The main room is in many ways, the courtyard, which contains a grassed staircase inserted between wall from the living space and walls of the courtyard
PROJECT DETAILS Client: Status: Contract value:
Binith + Cian Cheeran In planning. £750,000.00
Landscape Architect:
Anthony Clarkson Landscape.