Our client was an inventor and we had previously worked with him on a commercial property. His ambition was to create an unpretentious house on a modest site, and so he had bought a pretty nondescript bungalow on a 1960s estate, within walking distance of town. Our brief was to work within context, but to build an energy and space efficient house, with a workshop for his future inventions.

Our aim from the outset was to produce a house which had a sense of flow throughout and which seamlessly united the interior with the exterior. We achieved this by utilising the sloping terrain to great effect, sitting the house into the landscape.

We used a simple palette of robust, honest materials - white plaster, reclaimed brick and concrete floors - all of which further embedded the building into the landscape. Dan Pearson designed the external landscape and we particularly enjoyed working with him. His approach, of restoring and enhancing the indigenous landscape, worked perfectly with our strategy for the architecture.