The farmhouse at Cathole is a fascinating new commission, an early C18 farmhouse with attached byre, it ceased to be a working farm in the 1970’s and since 1992 has become the home of our clients who have sensibly decided to look at options for the repair and conversion of three outbuildings to new uses. This is a typical Devon long house with a cross passage, previously with two staircases under a thatched roof, now slate. The hen house and dairy have been turned into utility spaces ancillary to the kitchen. The re-use of redundant farm buildings needs to consider […]
Yearly archives: 2021
Dana Assinder, friend and accomplished landscape designer was commended this week in the RIBA Off Grid 2030 Competition featured in the RIBA Journal October 2021 with (Exeter based) Hilton Barnfield Architect for their Naturehaus project, so that reinforces the mass of talent here in Dorset & Devon. There are lots of us trying hard to share the varied and always interesting workload. I also think that collaboration with others is key to achieving better outcomes, bringing together lots of different skills complementing each other. Working with Niall Maxwell in Carmarthen has taught me a different approach and also just […]
On my travels to East Sussex I noted a technique we don’t see much in the west country – galletting. This is a method of filing wide joints with pebbles of shells, pushed into the spaces between stones, which if merely filled with lime mortar would be too wide. This little cottage in Winchelsea has an alternating pattern of scalloped tiles at first floor above limestone with mortar joints incorporating pebbles (probably from Winchelsea Beach). Many houses in Winchelsea have cellars dating from the early C15 when they were trading merchandise with the French before the harbour was completely silted […]
‘Those who cannot change their minds, cannot change anything’ George Bernard Shaw. It is important as an architect to be flexible and considerate of the impact of development on others. Our local environment is so precious that we need to be very sensitive to incremental change. This requires us to demonstrate our willingness to work with all parties in an open and collaborative process. Sometimes the facilitator of change and sometimes the sounding board for clients needing an options appraisal, it is never boring working in this field. Ultimately the most rewarding part of the job is the realisation of […]