Replacement Dwelling
Planning
The practice was appointed to develop detailed design proposals for a replacement dwelling in the village of West Rounton, in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, along the north western edge of the North York Moors National Park.
The proposed dwelling is intended to allow the Clients to continue living in their village, in much closer proximity to their horses and equestrian activities on the site.
Outline planning permission has been granted for the project, on the basis that two existing agricultural storage buildings would be demolished and replaced with buildings of a similar form, scale, and materiality to create a new, detached, single storey dwelling. With this in mind, the footprint of the proposed dwelling sits within that of the existing buildings, apart from the addition of the single storey link connecting the two buildings together.
Given the orientation, and views available from the site, and the requirements within the Client Design Brief, primary spaces are proposed to be located within the main shed element, and along the south-east elevations of this building. Secondary accommodation is then proposed as positioned within the outbuilding element, or along the north elevation of the main shed.
To exploit the potential views from the dwelling, and to visually connect the Clients with their horses and paddocks, areas of floor to ceiling glazing are proposed to the south and east elevations. Given the orientation of these elevations, deep overhangs are provided to prevent solar heat gain in the Summer, whilst allowing passive solar heat gain in the Winter.
The essential architectural quality of modern agricultural sheds is related to their simplicity of form and detailing. As such, the design proposals exploit the simple form of the shed to create overhangs and recesses both at the point where glazing requires shade from the sun, and at the point of entrance. Thereby a single, very simple, architectural device is used to both announce the entrance to the dwelling and to confirm its reason for being, a direct connection with the applicant’s horses, and views to the landscape, and nature beyond.
