Bavent House in Reydon, UK by Hudson Architects

Article source: Hudson Architects

Responding sensitively to its spectacular rural surrounding, Bavent House is a striking new 4-bedroom family house situated in the Suffolk countryside.

Bavent House - Image Courtesy James Brittain

• Architect: Hudson Architects
• Project: Bavent House
• Location: Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk, UK
• Structural Engineer: JP Chick and Partners
• Building contractor: Robert Norman Associates
• Quantity Surveyor: Cyril Sweett (Norwich)
• Photographs: James Brittain

Bavent House

Inspired by the architecture of the locale including agricultural barns and the humble beach hut, the design employs robust economical materials – an engineered timber frame, black zinc and Iroko timber cladding which will weather with time and harmonise the building with its setting, a landscape of reeds and grasses.

Image Courtesy James Brittain

On the North East elevation the house echoes the form of a traditional beach hut. Clad in black zinc, this simple form is dynamically distorted by shifts in geometry, which in places turns to face the views and in others is cut away to reveal a warmer Iroko timber cladding.

Bavent House

The resulting form creates a house with a u-shaped plan with rooms arranged around a South-facing courtyard. At the centre of the plan is a double height space with an office space on the first floor bridge and a large dining area, forming the hub of the house. From here the building is divided into two wings: with a large living room and guest bedrooms above on one side; the kitchen, snug and utility spaces serve as the everyday rooms on the other side with the two main bedrooms above.

Image Courtesy James Brittain

The interior has a simple aesthetic of white walls and Douglas fir engineered floors that emphasise the geometry of the double height space and focus the eye on views of the surrounding countryside, framed through carefully positioned picture windows of varying sizes. An overhanging roof on the Northwest elevation accentuates the sense of looking down onto the Marshes as the landscape falls away.

Sustainable aspects of the house include the utilisation of a ground source heat pump as the primary means of heating and the use of recycled newspaper insulation in the wall construction.

Hudson Architects
Founded in 2002 by Anthony Hudson, Hudson Architects is an award-winning architecture and design practice based in London and Norfolk. In the housing sector, Hudson Architects has set new standards in domestic architectural design, with award winning projects including the Baggy House, Devon and the Drop House, Hertfordshire, Cedar House, Norfolk and the Light House in Belper. Projects in the urban regeneration sector include Stoneleigh Managed Workspace in Tottenham for Haringey Council (2007), Castleford Town Square for Wakefield Council (2007) and Salvation Army Chelmsford (2009), which received the ACE/RIBA Award for Religious Architecture 2009, and was highly commended in the International Commercial Property Awards 2010. The renovation of a former banking hall in central Norwich into a state of the art 24-hour support centre for young people earned the practice the RIBA East Community Architecture Award in 2010 and a Civic Trust Community Recognition Award 2011.

Tags: Reydon, UK

Category: House

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