A house of blue lias

Inspired by the client’s love of mid-century American modernism, the new building features minimal glazing framed in brushed stainless steel and is a showcase for locally quarried blue lias stone.

Set on a 3.5 acre site close to Bruton and Castle Cary in Somerset, the property included an 19th century farmhouse and poorly converted barn. The owners, a couple with two teenaged sons, wanted to unify these very different buildings while respecting and cherishing the farmhouse’s period architecture.

The brief included renovating the underused barn which suffered from damp issues throughout and a lack of insulation which made it unbearably hot in summer and freezing in winter.

Forgeworks Architects designed the new connecting building, which provides a formal dining and living room, with a minimalist approach - bringing definition and balance between the heavier original structures. The glazing consists of five panels mounted on three recessed tracks, allowing both areas to be fully opened on to the south-facing terrace and swimming pool.

A carefully constructed duel sided solid fuel fireplace forms a centrepiece, dividing the space with a freestanding chimney, also in blue lias stone, which climbs up through the roof above.

The full width and height glazing rises above the internal ceiling allowing the front edge of the timber roof structure to be exposed, reducing the apparent thickness of the roof edge down and communicating the honest and engineered nature of the design.

The barn was gutted internally, preserving only the existing deep stone walls, and retrofitted to incorporate high performance insulation, solar panels, batteries and air source heat pumps.

Its interior spaces have been rearranged to house bedrooms, bathrooms, a playroom, study, and garage space for the owner’s vintage cars.

The exterior has been designed to give a contemporary but contextual feel with off white render and raked back existing stone work.

This adventurous contemporary design has been achieved within a conservation area and in the context of a World Heritage Site. Perched on a private wooded hill side road in the outskirts of Bath with views directly over the city to

Bristol, the Severn Estuary, and beyond to Monmouthshire, the house had not been renovated in decades and suffered from poor insulation and a palette of pastiche, low quality materials.

The decision to ‘cloak’ the building by placing high performance insulation and sustainable cedar cladding on the outside of the external walls and roof creates a visually unified and low energy home, with the retained building fabric repurposed as thermal mass.

A radically different house is delivered without significantly increasing its footprint. Much of the roof structure was retained, but sections of loft have been incorporated to add volume and drama in the internal layout, including a double height sky-lit hallway, mono-pitched kitchen-dining space and deep cut roof lights in the previously dark rear bedrooms. In the main living space, the original roof pitch has been inverted to create a defining front section, unexpected externally and generously spacious internally.

Relocating the main entrance from the centre to the far right of the building divides the house naturally between east and west. Facing west, the main living spaces benefit from afternoon and evening sunlight, with expansive views over the valley framed by large scale windows and sliding doors which open on to the terrace.