A home built with light, gathered at the centre and held in every room.
Type
New House
Status
Complete
Location
Type
Size
Status
-
-
-
-
Cornwall
New House
190 m²
Complete
The site had been loved for years. A house on a hillside above the coast, with a garden running down toward the sea and light that moved through the day in a way the owners had never stopped noticing.
The problem was that the building itself barely acknowledged any of it. A wall along one edge made the garden feel small. A series of extensions over the years had created rooms that turned inward, corridors that went nowhere useful, views that were glimpsed rather than held. The relationship between house and place had never fully been made.
The brief began, with a feeling rather than a room count. The owners wanted a home that came alive with the light. That felt discreet from the street but opened up inside. That carried the tones of the Cornish coast through the day. That gave every room a reason to be where it was.
We started with a rooflight at the centre of the plan. It sits directly above the crossing of the two main circulation routes, tracking the sky through the day like a sundial. From anywhere on these axes, light arrives from at least two directions at once. From the middle of the house, you are connected to light from five. The garden always draws you toward it along a corridor. The design grew outward from that single, generous idea.
Each of the four principal rooms occupies a corner of the square plan, giving every space at least two aspects. The sun reaches every room during the day. The open-plan living has windows on three sides, with a large covered terrace cut back into the form of the building, sheltered from rain and extending naturally into the garden. At the front, the house is low and quiet: slate-clad, minimal openings, a recessed door that gives nothing away. The contrast is deliberate. The house saves itself for those who step inside.
"It looks like a very modest and quiet house from the outside. Then you find yourself in a huge and airy space."
Merryn and Oliver
Inside, the material palette is simple and natural. Flamed black granite across the main floor, textured and soft underfoot. Wide oak boards in the bedrooms, sawn to carry warmth and grain. Ply ceilings throughout, for acoustic comfort and a quiet character that photographs cannot quite capture. The joinery is built in, but measured and restrained. The kitchen draws back against one wall so the island stands free, more sideboard than fitted unit.
The bathrooms are a different kind of space: landlocked and private, with vaulted ceilings rising to rooflights like narrow chimneys. Each has its own tile and ceiling colour, a moment of richness tucked away from the quieter main rooms. Private indulgence, carefully placed.
The two guest bedrooms at the rear corners each have an oriel window large enough to sit in, reaching out from the footprint of the house to hold a view. On the west side, the window opens across the garden and out toward the coast. On the east, it looks into a contained bamboo courtyard with a long narrow view down to the water. One expansive, one intimate. Both entirely their own.
The building sits on a raised plinth of black granite, lifted to carry views over the rooflines below. A ha-ha at the garden edge dissolves the boundary into the meadow. Where the slate envelope opens at windows and doorways, timber linings form the thresholds, softening the point where the building meets the hand.
The envelope carries as much weight as the plan. Built from a timber frame with wood fibre insulation, wrapped in natural materials inside and out, the home stays quietly comfortable regardless of what the coast is doing outside. Triple glazing and mechanical ventilation keep the air fresh and the temperature steady without a fight against draughts, while stack ventilation lets the house breathe naturally through the changing seasons. None of this shows up in a photograph. It's felt the moment you step inside, still, settled, at ease with the weather beyond the granite plinth.
"You really listened, were imaginative but practical, had ideas and also problem solved, and really worked with, and understood, our brief. The end result is a house that is exactly right for us and yet is more original and special than we would ever have imagined at the start."
Merryn and Oliver
Photography by Form Photography
Designed by David Jones while a Director at KAST Architects.
If you are considering a new home or a sensitive project of your own, we would be delighted to hear from you.