Garden House, North Berwick

Having explored options on their 1970’s era house with us, the clients decided to replace the existing house with a new-build to deliver a more efficient house for their needs and reduce their energy consumption.

 

The enclosed garden plot sits behind a large hedge on both the north and the south sides, but from a higher level has a fantastic view of North Berwick Law. 

 

Their ambition was to capture the view with a master suite on the upper floor, but that the rest of the accommodation should retain the privacy provided by the hedges, with windows framing garden vignettes back and front.

 

An extended stone wall acts as the building’s spine, providing the garden boundary to the west and giving privacy and separation from the cars with just a hint of what lies behind. 

All the ground floor rooms look into the garden which wraps the house on three sides. The generous living kitchen dining space anchors the rest of the house together, soaking up the sun from the south with two enclosing forms creating a sheltered sun trap patio. 

 

All the spaces are designed to feel intimate and the guest bedrooms and bathrooms discreetly located behind a panelled wall. The Snug room is at the end of the bedroom wing with open views to the garden where TV and music can be enjoyed without fear of impact on the open plan living space. This space can double up as a sitting room for when family are staying and want their own private space. The upper and lower hallways are designed to be inhabited, with generous window seats and a small work space away from but connected to the heart of the house. The house is super insulated and wrapped in wood fibreboard, the exterior clad in black painted larch and grey brick on the garden facing elevations with a standing seam zinc roof. The placement of the clients garden sculptures has been to provide added garden focal points and captured by carefully positioned windows.