A quaint ‘sticks and stones’ cottage which forms the heart of this family home is situated in a grade two listed site and is set within a concealed location, surrounded by scrub and woodlands.

The proposed design sensitively organizes the existing farm buildings, enabling an external-internal landscape approach to the otherwise disconnectedness of the farm buildings.

The role of play as a modality has also been a key influence that forms a looping internal landscape through which imparts a journey of varying expansive spaces.

Alongside this journey, sculptural landmarks were inserted between and into the building, either as a way of contributing to the journey – or diverting it.

This approach to design invited a type of playfulness into everyday activities. The experimental journey throughout the buildings became one compressive space, full of light, materiality, and history.

Project by Alter & Company

Photography by Jim Stephenson