ProjectCliff Farm
ClientPrivate
StatusTechnical Design
A rural home designed to house three generations under one roof
Cliff Farm is a home designed with longevity in mind. The concept has been developed to meet the needs of the family in the short and long term, while local natural materials have been chosen to help bed the home into its natural surroundings.
A multi-disciplinary team of environmental experts have collaborated to ensure the home will enhance the surrounding landscape. Cliff Farm was granted planning permission under Paragraph 84 of the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework).
Multi-generational Living
The house has several possible arrangements, allowing for both communal living and privacy, housing three generations of the client’s family under one sloped roof. The main section houses the client and their children, and the single level wing is designed for their parents. The two wings are connected by a communal living space and guest bedroom.
The home was designed in close collaboration with the client to ensure that it meets their short and long term needs. Adaptable walls within the structure mean that internal arrangement can be adjusted quickly and easily to adapt to the family as they grow. Long term planning is just as important, making sure the scheme is able to adapt to the family’s changing needs and increase the longevity of the building. The annex is designed to meet Part M3(4) requirements for wheelchair adaptable buildings.
Building with natural materials
This proposal aims to create a beautiful home using the resources that surround it. Understanding the local architectural language has allowed us to propose a credible reinterpretation that reflects the highest quality of design. This approach combined with sensitivity to the immediate setting will help raise the standard of design in rural areas and become a positive example of how to build a low embodied energy, low impact home on an isolated site of this nature.
The use of hemp panels produced at Margent Farm, Cambridgeshire will be the first roof application of this material. The pure plywood structure ensures that the scheme can be kept open to work perfectly with its flexible programme, and referenced the historically significant Pine End Works factory. The offcut pennant stone will be sourced from the Forest of Dean quarry less than 10 miles away, as will the timber cladding.
What is Paragraph 84?
Cliff Farm was built under Paragraph 79 (now Paragraph 84) of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Known as ‘The Country House Clause’, Paragraph 84 relates to the building of new homes in the open countryside, typically on isolated sites.
Consultants
Udall-Martin Associates, Qualified Ecologists
Seed, Landscape Architects and LVIA consultants
Structure Workshop, Structural Engineers
Additional Specialists and Suppliers
Margent Farm, Hemp panel specialist
Forest of Dean Stone, Pennant Stone specialists and supplier
Therma Fleece, sheep wool insulation
Back to Earth, wood fibre insulation products
