Architecture Wednesday: The Woven Home

This modern four-bedroom home is an exciting fusion of high-tech materials and exquisite craftsmanship and sits just minutes from some of the best beaches on the Kent Coast. The home is surrounded by mature trees, which create a feeling of absolute seclusion and privacy while the innovative façade in repetitive geometric swirls softens the angular lines of the house’s form.

The house, nestled in its woodland plot behind a broad driveway with space for several cars, sits on raised steel stilts sunken into concrete pile foundations. The simplicity of the design is enlivened by the intricate façade of recycled sculptural modules that wrap around the house, establishing a trellis for climbing plants and softening the edges of the house such that it melds with the surrounding trees.

Inside, the generous expanses of glazing welcome light and nature. On the ground floor the living spaces have been arranged around a central service area which houses utilities, a half bathroom, storage and the stairs to the upper floor.

This pushes the living spaces out towards the light and establishes a flowing 360 circulation around the ground floor, split broadly into four quadrants. A heated polished concrete floor runs throughout the downstairs, unifying the spaces and providing an industrial accent to the cantilevered timber beams and cross-laminated timber walls which it sits alongside.

Entry is to a wide foyer with built-in storage; the kitchen stretches out to the left and a large kitchen island centers the space and provides a gathering space. Beyond this is a distinct dining area overlooking the rear lawn and perched beside double-glazed doors which step out to the garden. This rear half of the house is shared with a beautiful living room while a more secluded living room is tucked in a front quadrant and can be partitioned by heavy curtains to soundproof the TV and create privacy as a guest space.

A bent steel staircase rises through the center of the house to the first floor and its four equally sized-bedrooms. The wide landing has space for a desk overlooking the treetops. The bedrooms are all en suite with slightly different configurations. In two of the rooms, clever joinery slides across to reveal and conceal an in-room bathtub and separate shower room. The other two bedrooms at the back of the plan are dual aspect and have shower room en suites.

From the landing, an elegantly crafted curved step rises to the sliding doors that open to the terrace which peaks through the treetops to the sea beyond.

Over time, the house and it’s trellis exterior will blend more and more with its surrounding. Cleverly conceived planters sit within the houses’ façade, and already climbing jasmine, clematis and wisteria are creeping across this intricate frame.

It will become one with the garden.

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