Designed to be discreet & delightful

Knitted into the local community, it was important to both client and architect that Gables have a low impact on its village setting and immediate neighbours

Photography: Nick Hufton, Al Crow

Astriking low impact village home, Gables was designed to be the ‘forever home’ for the retired owners, and thus needed to be accessible, highly contemporary, low energy, sustainable and secure. The design also had to strike a balance between being not too big for two, but big enough to accommodate village parties and wider family coming to stay.

The designers set out to encapsulate the character of the village and the wider site into the home’s concept. Thus, CDC studio replicated the thatched barn with weatherboarding, incorporating into the new volumes local crafts and materials of flint, red brick, timber shutters and estate fencing complementing this with the use of zinc to echo the agricultural aesthetic of the original land use.

The larger part of the new house was set back to retain existing views of the thatched barn from the village road and kept deliberately low in height to accommodate the immediate neighbours’ views. This resulted in the low-lying, folding glazed volumes, which accommodate the 200 sq-m footprint of space.

Left Adopting a modern approach, the larger part of the new house was set back to retain existing views of the thatched barn from the village road

The kitchen sits under a column-free, steel rod hung mezzanine with acoustic damping which was engineered to avoid reverberating noise

The site was landscaped to lead visitors towards the entrance and the front-facing study, while not being able to access the main house without an invitation. A narrow, curved hallway leads into the main house, where kitchen, dining and living spaces are open plan to allow for social gatherings.

This created a sense of enclosure to the kitchen, allowing CDC to achieve the fully flexible family/party space requested beyond. Meanwhile, in the thatched barn, the building’s original character was emphasised by embracing its full height to the ridge, offering modest but usable guest rooms wrapped in painted timber boarding.

Built primarily from timber frame with woodwool insulation and concrete sheer walls, the house incorporates air source heat pumps and photovoltaics and will be monitored for its energy use over the course of the year.

CDC studio replicated the thatched barn with weatherboarding, while also incorporating local crafts and materials into the new volumes

Inside the main house, kitchen, dining and living spaces are open plan to allow for social gatherings

The folding roofline shapes with their zinc gables were crafted and lined in silver fir timber plus acoustic felt

The extended roofline and orientation provides solar shading to the solar controlled west facing glazing with the careful positioning of rooflights to prevent overheating in the height of summer, plus water run-off is directed to a salvaged historical water trough which the clients will use to water the garden. The linear design is extended into the immediate landscape with water rills extending out like fingers into the wider area which over time the clients will begin to accentuate with their planting.

Project: Gables Location: Cambridgeshire, England Design firm: chadwickdryerclarke.studio | www.chadwickdryerclarke.co.uk Structural engineers: Michael Hadi Associates | www.mha-consult.com Project size: 200 sq-m

The thatched barn embraces its full height to the ridge, offering modest but usable guest rooms wrapped in painted timber boarding

A separate master suite spreads into the new volumes providing dressing, bathroom and a private patio area