The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk

The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Interior Photography, Table, Windows, Chair, BeamThe Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Interior Photography, Living Room, WindowsThe Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Exterior Photography, Windows, FacadeThe Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Image 5 of 20The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - More Images+ 15

Peterborough, United Kingdom
More SpecsLess Specs
The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
Courtesy of Hall + Bednarczyk

Text description provided by the architects. The Nook is a new-build four bedroom family house set in a secluded valley in Monmouthshire. Planning permission for this 250m2 home was secured to replace a drab 1960’s bungalow that had previously occupied a corner of the 1 acre Wye Valley site.

The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Interior Photography, Table, Windows, Chair, Beam
Courtesy of Hall + Bednarczyk

The aim of the project was to establish a durable and flexible home that capitalised on the best qualities of its setting. The plot’s fundamental appeal lay in its combination of attractive rural surroundings combined with good year-round solar exposure.

The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Interior Photography
Courtesy of Hall + Bednarczyk

The construction budget was not overly generous at £325,000 (including kitchen and built-in furniture) equating to £1,300 per m2. A separate outbuilding, providing a carport and garden storage, was allocated a £25,000 budget.

The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Image 16 of 20
Ground Floor Plan

The design adopts the simple, confident massing evident in the region’s agricultural structures, where both traditional stone barns and the spare steel-framed modern structures now used by farmers tend to possess a visual clarity and generosity of scale absent from most rural dwellings. A rectangular floor plan provided efficiency, flexibility and economy. The adoption of a steel frame enabled significant spans to cater for large openings in the building elevation and allowed the structural flexibility to omit floor sections and thereby create expansive and playful spaces within the interior.

The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Countertop, Table, Wood, Windows, Sink
Courtesy of Hall + Bednarczyk

The privacy of the house’s rural location enables generous areas of glazing to be employed, illuminating the living spaces with natural light as well as framing views of the surrounding landscape, which appears to pass though the home. Large sliding glass panels open up the elevations to the outside.

The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Image 15 of 20
First Floor Plan

Regional materials are used – the sandstone was quarried three miles away - to help create a building that is intended to have a comfortable affinity with its setting. Consideration was given to the fact that the building would be liable to acquire moss and lichen over time.

The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Interior Photography, Windows, Beam
Courtesy of Hall + Bednarczyk

The detailing of the house explores a number of vernacular elements and construction techniques through a modern lens. There are a number of examples - a sturdy stone chimney containing flues for internal and external fireplaces which creates a key moment of vertical emphasis on the principal elevation; splayed stone window reveals which have been disc-cut smoothly to contrast with the rugged texture of hand-dressed sandstone walls; a black steel frame that brings visual precision and a grid of graphic separation to the naturally-weathering materials of the elevations; and a built-in settle and welsh dresser that make the kitchen and dining space flexible and accommodating.

The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
Courtesy of Hall + Bednarczyk

Project gallery

See allShow less
About this office
Cite: "The Nook / Hall + Bednarczyk" 18 Aug 2015. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/771922/the-nook-hall-plus-bednarczyk> ISSN 0719-8884

Courtesy of Hall + Bednarczyk

英国Nook住宅 / Hall + Bednarczyk

You've started following your first account!

Did you know?

You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.