The Cheeran House was designed by John Pardey Architects for Cian and Binith Cheeran and their infant daughter. The house replaces a single storey dwelling on a modest size plot attached to a larger victorian walled garden in Lower Basildon, Berkshire. The walled garden is classed as agricultural land and cannot be built on and building behind the wall would disconnect the larger part of the site. The solution was to sit the house on the wall so that wall forms a flank wall of the house and then transforms to become a chimney.

The house is made up of two volumes. A single storey guest wing runs across the site and extends to provide an entrance. At right angles to this and raised to provide bedrooms on the first floor is a second volume clad in vertical cedar board. Below the box, to the north, is a small study with large window onto the driveway and a framed view of the meadow and, to the south, an open plan kitchen dining living room cut into the sloping site on two sides with clerestory windows just above ground level. Large, full height sliding doors open to connect the space to a sheltered, sunny courtyard garden with reflection pool wrapped by retaining walls.

The heavy knapped flint walls contrast with the lightweight cedar cladding and white painted interiors and were formed using a series of off-the-shelf precast concrete block modules inset with flint which were then expertly pointed with lime mortar. Steps lead from this outdoor room to a lawn and via a gate, through to the walled garden planted with wild flowers.

The ground floor finish is large format porcelain tile, the first floor is engineered oak. The simple stair with oak treads winds around a storage wall below a central rooflight. Walls and ceilings are white matt with shadow gap detail to flush architraves and skirting. Windows are ppc aluminium RAL 7016.

Project Details

Client: Cian and Binith Cheeran

GIA: 284m2

Contact value: £925,000

Status: Completed 2016

Awards: RIBA South Award 2016, RIBA House of the Year Award 2016 (longlist)

Images: The Modern House

Design Team

Design: John Pardey Architects

Project Architect: Richard Butler

Arboriculturalist: Brynley Andrews Associates

Structure: Barton Engineers

Sistainability: C80 Solutions

Landscape: Pictorial Meadows

QS: APS Associates

Lighting: John Cullen

Building Control: Assent

Renewables: Isoenergy

Contractors

Construction Manager: MH Estates

Suppliers

Brick: Nortcott Brick

Knapped flint block: Dorset Flint & Stone

Roof: Bauder

Glazing: Northholt Glass Architectural, Fusion Glazing

Below ground waterproofing: RIW

Glazing: Panoramah! / Schuco

Kitchen: Baulthaup

Roof: Danosa