Building Holmes

Wednesday September 23rd 2009

Onto the houses…

A Converted Grist Mill
First up was a beautifully executed mill conversion near Falmouth. The granite buildings in this part of the world, sitting beneath local Delabole slate roofs, have a lovely quality and the rolling countryside creates some spectacular vistas. Sitting on an elevated hillside, this place was no exception with views that stretched for miles and miles down to the Helford River.
The owners gave us a brief history of the place: a former grist mill, designed on a split level so the grain could come in from the first floor street level and be poured straight into the hoppers above the millstones, housed within a two storey circular turret where the beasts of burden would have wound their way round and round. The original granite millstones are now incorporated into the building.
The owners rescued the place from a shroud of ivy and years of neglect, coming up with an innovative design solution that injected light into and around the central circular turret. The owners' original application for change of use from holiday home to residential was frowned upon by the planners, but with the help of their architect, the final design was approved in just eight weeks.
The circular turret now houses the staircase and hallway, linking the open plan kitchen breakfast room to a spacious sitting room on the ground floor, and the bedroom accommodation upstairs. The interiors have a simple country charm that is in keeping with the building’s character.

A Sustainable Contemporary Home On The Coast
From there we drove over to Palzeath to another house with spectacular views, this time over the bay which was crawling with surfers enjoying the Atlantic breakers. Far too good a view to ignore, the designer overcame the potential energy loss of the northerly aspect by incorporating triple glazing and window and door frames capable of dealing with high winds.
The design makes good use of the steeply sloping plot - formerly part of the owners’ garden - with a three storey layout that extracts maximum floorspace from a relatively small footprint.
The lower ground floor is built into the bank and contains the service rooms and secondary bedrooms. The ground floor provides the main bedroom accommodation, and the raised first floor, a single large open plan kitchen, dining and living space, with vaulted ceiling.
A very impressive minimalist timber staircase with glass balustrade is tucked away space efficiently at the back of the house, where there is also a lift for those who can’t deal with too many stairs.
Built to exacting standards of air tightness, as well as incorporating high levels of insulation, the building has a very low heat requirement, which is met by a ground source heat pump which powers warm water underfloor heating.
An innovative addition, sourced via America, is a heat recovery coil which recycles the lost heat from waste bath and shower water from bathrooms. The ecological credentials are high, but the payback in financial terms is likely to be very long.

A Masterpiece of Contemporary Design
Last house of the day was back on the South Coast, this time near Lympstone in Devon. A masterpiece of contemporary design, with strong sleek horizontal lines and vast expanses of glazing - including a dramatic glazed drum shaped living space, the property sits directly above the coastline within, but screened from, a line of unprepossessing bungalows - similar to the one which it has replaced.
The views over the Fal Estuary are beautiful and we were lucky enough to catch the best of a late afternoon burst of sun. The exacting detailing of the architecture was complemented by an almost impossibly perfect manicured lawn - snooker table smooth, which ended with an equally dramatic sheer drop to the seafront below.
The ground floor was largely open plan combining living, kitchen and dining, with the wall overlooking the sea almost entirely glazed and in part double height.
If you were to ever bore of the views the house also featured an indoor swimming pool, gym, steam room and a home cinema at lower ground floor level.

Overnighting near Exeter Airport for a very early start. Looking forwards to tomorrow's houses.