A stone long-house that steps down the field instead of levelling it.
The family wanted a house that felt like it had always been in the valley. The plan is one long range of rooms that follows the slope, half a level at a time.
Each step down opens a little more to the view. The house begins enclosed at the lane and ends in a glazed room at the bottom of the field.
Client
Private client
Location
Cotswolds, United Kingdom
Year
2023
Scope
New-build house
Area
410 m²
Status
Completed
Collaborators
Berg & Reid, structure
Photography
Anna Lowe
THE SITE
Letting the land set the levels.
We surveyed the field by hand before drawing anything. The four floor levels match the natural terraces, so almost no earth left the site.
The dry-stone walls along the boundary became the house walls. They were rebuilt with the same local stone, laid the same way.
“It feels like the field made room for us.”
Homeowner — Alder House
Three materials drawn from within a few miles.
Stone
Cotswold limestone, dry-laid
The external walls use stone from a quarry eight miles away.
Timber
Green oak frame
Visible inside, pegged rather than bolted, and left to season in place.
Plaster
Lime, hand-troweled
Inside the stone walls, so the house can breathe through the seasons.
PROCESS
Sketch to site.
01
Sketch
A hand survey of the field and its terraces.
02
Plan
Four floor levels, each following the ground.
03
Render
Stone and oak samples tested on site.
04
Built
Built by local trades over eighteen months.