Glade House
A new family home on the edge of Box, cut low into a wooded slope to give a cosseted and deliberately understated presence within its woodland clearing.
Box, Corsham, 2021
Set within a clearing accessed off the historic byway of Pye Lane, the design responds directly to a steeply sloping, wooded site on the edge of the village. Rather than a single dominant volume, the house is formed of two pitched masses, offset from one another so the roofline steps down in sympathy with the fall of the land, breaking up the overall massing and easing the building into its setting.
By turning the plan through ninety degrees from earlier iterations, the house presents a far narrower profile to its neighbours, while cutting into the existing bank lowers both ridge and eaves heights to minimise any sense of overlooking. All accommodation (living space, garage and stores alike) is drawn into a single, efficient footprint, avoiding outbuildings and keeping the scheme's spread to a minimum.
Materials root the house firmly in its Cotswold context: rough-coursed, mortared Cotswold stone walls with dressed stone quoins, natural slate roofs with ashlar copings, standing-seam zinc box dormers, and painted slimline aluminium windows and sliding doors, with western red cedar panelling adding warmth against the glazing. Rooflights are fitted with light-sensitive blinds to limit night-time spread into the surrounding woodland, and the internal levels are designed so that a passenger lift could later be retrofitted, allowing flush, step-free access throughout.
Location: Box, Wiltshire
Client: Private domestic
Status: Planning (2021)
Design Team: Matthew Clay Architects, Callidus Consulting (Highways & Drainage), Tyler Grange (Arboricultural), All Ecology (Ecology)
