Project Details

Farnworth House

Project Description

Farnworth House is a new build home located at the centre of a historic village in Cheshire which dates back to 1352.  Located on the site of the former vicarage, adjacent to a grade II* listed Church the context couldn’t be richer.

Undertaking their second self-build project the clients’ brief was to build a contemporary home that would have the flexibility to cope with changing family conditions and challenge their ability as self-builders, using a limited palette of bespoke materials and craftsmanship on a tight budget.

As a diagram the building can be easily defined as a simple modernist arrangement of three distinct elements; the North-South base, the central pavilion and the East-West cantilever.  The delight comes from how each element connects, with thoughtful consideration given to each junction and interface.

Externally, the buildings diagram is interpreted through it’s materiality, the sandstone base roots the building in its context and can be read as a continuation of the historic sandstone wall surrounding the site.  In contrast the glass pavilion at the centre of the plan allows a visual and physical connection directly through the building.  With the final element, the tree house floating above the two, finished in larch timber cladding nestling within the mature tree canopy.

Internally, the building is composed as series of hidden and interconnecting spaces, the entrance approach is defined by the sandstone base which breaks though the threshold into a double height top-lit entrance hall.  From here the space continually shifts from compression to release, inside to outside, floating and rooted.  This fluctuating tension through major and minor spaces continues throughout the building.  Utilising the same materiality as the external envelop, punctuated with raw in-situ concrete and high tensile steel revealing the structural skeleton of the construction.