subterranean living

This unusual 200m² house on a steeply-sloping site in Woldingham in Surrey is now on site. The Planning consent was won against a background of orchestrated local opposition and a history of Planning and Appeal refusals for more conventional development proposals.

The fall of the land has been utilised to minimise the apparent mass of the house, with the transverse wing of garden floor accommodation submerged in the slope below a grass-covered entrance terrace. At right angles to this, backed into the slope, the principle timber-clad wing echoes the form of a barn – presenting an unpretentious single-storey elevation to the public access road at the top of the site. Fenestration has been carefully designed to minimise overlooking and to maximise the long views across the valley to the east.