The desire is to create a single storey environmentally friendly dwelling which has a low impact on the site and the neighbouring properties. The proposed house includes: living room, dining / kitchen, study, utility, cloakroom, garage, entrance hall and two double bedrooms with en-suites.
The new dwelling also needs to accommodate an elderly relative, who requires some independence, but also needs to be integrated into the house. For this reason a 'Granny Flat' is incorporated into the design and includes a sitting room, bedroom and disabled en-suite.
The proposal seeks to reinstate and partially extend the original 'Walled Garden' to the nearby Old Rectory and continue that theme in the new house. The new house will be mostly linear in its form and built against a new brick wall to the North. It is to open up to the South and West, to maximise solar gain and views of the garden.
There is a rich history of domestic architecture which has explored similar themes, both internationally and locally. Generally these houses are in the modernist tradition but the most successful manage to achieve a harmonious relationship between the traditional and contemporary in form and material / and the relationship between inside and outside. Turn End by Aldington Craig & Collinge in particular is an excellent example of this approach. The following houses all provided clues to the final design:
Jacobs House, Madison, Wisconsin / Frank Lloyd Wright / 1936
Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois / Mies van der Rohe / 1951
Turn End, Haddenham, Bucks / Aldington, Craig and Collinge / 1963
Radiant House, Milton Keynes / Richard Weston Studio / 1994
Cobtun House, Worcester / Associated Architects / 2005
Construction is due to commence in September 2011.