Mark Hines

This new cottage in a small Norfolk village is a “quiet” building which respects its context and is sympathetic to its beautiful rural setting. The materials, massing, scale, and form are suggestive of the traditional architecture that can be found in the area.

The cottage sits low and unobtrusively in the flat Fenland landscape. An asymmetrical roofline sweeps down to just a few feet above the ground to emphasise the scale of the roof and the walls are made of smooth, round flint pebbles laid in horizontal courses to form a wonderful contrast to the flickering burnt orange hues of the pantiles.

The cottage faces the street and is just one and a half storeys high. Rather than trying to create a perfectly symmetrical elevation, the window sizes vary and are placed to suit room proportions and the internal layout of the house. The informal placement and change in window scale create visual interest to the external elevations and is perhaps suggestive of a home which has grown organically over the years.

The kitchen/dining area and living room overlook the surrounding fields and are divided by a generous handmade brick paved entrance hall. This is a room in itself and contains storage, built-in seating and a fireplace. There is a woodburning stove which serves as a focal point in the living room and an AGA range in the kitchen. The ground floor ceilings have exposed timber joists and the interior is decorated with vertical timber boarding and Farrow & Ball paints.

The ground floor is extended at the rear and contains the staircase, wc, storage areas, boot drying and utility room. Upstairs, there are two equal sized cosy bedrooms and two bathrooms tucked neatly into the roof space. All of the rooms have roof lights and a view of the stars at night.

The building is naturally ventilated with oak timber windows. It is highly insulated and designed to achieve a 40 % reduction in annual fuel bills compared to a new build home of a similar size built to current building regulation standards.