New house  – Huish Champflower

This replacement dwelling set within the Quantock Hills, is a family home that enhances this beautiful and tranquil valley-side setting, sitting quietly within its landscape and connecting sympathetically with its immediate surroundings. Built using modern materials and methods, the house nonetheless retains many recognisable traditional elements, so that it feels as though it has stood at the spot for many decades.

The house offers generous accommodation with spaces for work (a study), play (a studio) and rest (4 bedrooms), allowing a family of four to live comfortably, with space for guests. It also boasts high environmental credentials, with low emissions both in construction and ongoing energy usage. Ground source heat, solar power, electric vehicle charging points and broadband communications throughout integrate modern technology seamlessly into the fabric of the house.

A deliberately small family garden, combined with extensive soft landscaping and naturalistic planting schemes using native and locally common species, allows the property to blend seamlessly into its surroundings. Natural stone pathways and terraces, together with minimal external lighting, further reduce the impact on local wildlife — in keeping with the owners’ wider ambitions for their adjoining land, which is being managed to maximise biodiversity, with ecologists and woodland experts engaged to draw up plans supported by agencies such as the Forestry Commission and Natural England.

The completed house provides:

• A master bedroom suite at first floor level
• A main lounge and snug, also at first floor level, taking full advantage of the valley views
• A kitchen/dining space with terrace at first floor, connecting the family to those views
• 3 further bedrooms at ground floor level
• An office and a study at ground floor
• A studio/gym
• Utility/plant room
• Car parking