Old police house

Broadhempston, devon

Having recently purchased the Old Police House, our clients had high ambitions to develop it into an energy-efficient, modern, artistic home with a strong connection to the surrounding landscape and a walled garden to extend their enjoyment of the sun into the winter months.

Their original intention was to achieve open-plan living by opening up the cellular ground floor, however this would always conflict with the low ceilings and hunkered down nature of the house. Our concept was to work more closely with what was there, inhabiting the smaller existing rooms with cosy and insular spaces such as a family dining room and snug, whilst achieving the open-plan family room in a purpose built extension, elevated to take advantage of the views across the landscape. The use of slender aluminium bi-fold doors creates a seamless and flowing transition through the sequence of indoor and outdoor spaces.

The houses numerous previous extensions were rationalised, and the whole building insulated externally to a high standard. An air source heat pump powered by solar photovoltaic panels efficiently operates the underfloor heating throughout. The careful selection of a limited palette of materials - light grey render, standing seam roofing, charred timber cladding - brings further coherence and serenity to the architecture.

As well as providing full architectural services, including fabrication drawings for various elements, WoCo also designed and made several key pieces throughout the house including the kitchen island units, recessed ash handrail, dining room console and various bespoke and built-in joinery items.

Services – concept design, planning approval, building control approval, on-site assistance, fabrication drawings, bespoke fabrication and joinery