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Architects: McLean Quinlan
- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Will Scott
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Manufacturers: VELUX Group, Farrow and Ball, Solid Floor, Velfac
Text description provided by the architects. This house in located in a small village on the north Devon Coast. The site is accessed down a long drive and the building is tucked up against the slope of the site, to make the most of the long views down to the sea from the upper levels.
A stone gable end is the first glimpse you get of this building, with an industrial chimney, dark against the grey stone. The clients asked us to include some elements of a New England beach house, and so an external material of green oak boarding was used together with the local stone.
Built as a family holiday home, and designed to maximise the number of bedrooms and open living space, the building is simple in form - a neat pitched volume coupled with a generous entrance porch. This porch provides a formal entrance as well as direct access to a large mud room for drying wetsuits from days out surfing and muddy boots from walking the costal paths.
The building is split down the middle by a central stair. On entering, the hall opens up to a double height space with views of the garden. The main living space is open plan, with a separate games space for the children and the practical necessities of a large larder and laundry.
Up the open tread stairs, on the first floor, the split volumes separate the master bedroom suite from the main bedroom wing. Here, a long corridor with a single pane window at the far end, leads to four double bedrooms. Half way along the corridor is a secret stair, tucked among the linen cupboards, which winds up to two further attic bedrooms above.
