01494 778787
01494 778787
With a brief to create a contemporary family home that takes full advantage of the spectacular elevated site on the Norfolk coast, Adrian Small, partner at Cowper Griffith Architects, describes how he met the brief. The finished house is truly stunning to behold.
Project details
Architect: Cowper Griffith Architects
Interior design: Oyster Interiors
Door details: Pivot Ridge in iroko finished in oil (1200mm by 2346mm) with matching side lights
Handle: BZ5
How did you meet the brief?
The house is designed as an upside-down house with primary living spaces on the first floor to make the most of the views. The site contains numerous mature beech trees that surround a central clearing. This essentially determined the position of the house. The staggered footprint of the property steps between the tree canopies. Each first-floor pavilion has a vaulted ceiling and glazed gable ends to make the most of the dramatic views.
In contrast to the light and airy open-plan first floor, the ground floor is intentionally cellular with thick walls, deep window reveals, and an in-situ fair-faced concrete ceiling to give a feeling of mass and enclosure. The journey into the house takes you through the low and weighty ground floor before rising upwards into the light and open-plan first floor space, culminating at the centrepiece of the house, the living room, with its dramatic folded oak panelled ceiling.
Why did you choose an Urban Front door?
The front door was our recommendation to the client. We are impressed by the door’s structural integrity for security and resilience to the North Norfolk coastal weather.
Please tell us about the use of wood inside the property.
Fluted oak panels contrast with white polished plaster to give a warm, soft feel to the interior spaces. The main space has folding oak panels to the vaulted roof supported by delicate oak portal frames. The triangular panels fold along the ceiling face to create interest and shadow.
Please tell us about the shapes of the property.
The house design is based on a trinity of elements, the three pavilions, three chimney stacks organised within a classical proportioning system. Square shapes repeat throughout the design, with square windows, square flint panels, square door openings, etc. The front door is made up of two squares, one on top of the other. Using the square shape repeatedly helps unify the design.
What materials have been used, and why were they chosen?
Externally, the distinction between the ground and first floor is expressed in the materials used. Brick and cobble walling to the lower storey provides a solid masonry base with materials in keeping with the local vernacular, albeit utilised in a modern way. The ground floor long-format brickwork has punched window openings that form a weighty plinth for the upper floor.
By contrast, the upper storey features lighter-weight materials with walls clad in vertical hardwood boards and battens. The roofs are finished in pre-patinated bronze coloured zinc that relates well to the traditional red clay pantiles in this part of Norfolk. Large expanses of glazing further reinforce the lighter forms of the upper storey.
Please tell us about the chimneys.
Rising from the masonry plinth are three expressive chimneys, each splitting into three stacks. They are intended as strong sculptural objects that help connect the upper storey ‘pavilions’ to the brick lower storey. They are functional, providing an open fire to the sitting room, wood-burning stove to the study, and ventilation to the kitchen.
Is the property sustainable?
The house employs sustainable technologies, chiefly by avoiding heat loss through the highly insulated deep cavity walls and first-floor steel-framed pavilions, which are insulated with carbon-neutral wood fibre. This breathable system avoids plastics as far as possible by avoiding the need for waterproof or vapour control membranes. The house is heated throughout via underfloor heating driven by an air source heat pump, which also heats the domestic hot water supply. A key consideration was positioning the heat pump out of view and containing noise, both from the neighbours and the site itself.
What is your favourite part of the property?
The flow through the house, how the upper floors connect, and the sun penetrating the interior in different ways throughout the day.