Project Design Team: David Osborne Associate (structural engineers) Alan Guy Associates (service consultant) GJ Smith (main contractor)
Project type: Conservation, Repair & Extension
Location: Berkshire
Project year: 1999
There was no question our client's farmhouse was harbouring animals. It was just they were wrong kind.
It wasn't just rooks and bats, but the whole menagerie from woodworm to deathwatch beetle, plus the dreaded dry rot. Whatever was out there, this house had it all - minus the timber floors of course.
But it also had some wonderful panelled rooms and a good staircase of which the ravages of time and neglect had not quite eaten away.
It was now a matter of conserving what could be conserved, rebuilding what couldn't and adding what was needed to bring this down-at-heel building back to be a wonderful family home.
Once the battle with nature had been won it was a matter of anchoring the house in the landscape with a series of enclosing garden walls, a propper driveway and some landscaping.
