Glass-fronted new build home in Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the rolling hills of Buckinghamshire, Cobble Hill House is a stylish piece of modern architecture. Designed as a single storey structure to match the height of the previous property on the site, the building is designed with a large open plan living space on the south facing side of the house, connected to the outside by a continuous wall of SVG83 sliding doors installed by Park Farm Design.

The task for Nick Baker Architects was to minimise the impact of the house on its surroundings and, from the outside, the clever design of the glazing sees the woodland reflected in the glass of the doors. The remaining, non-glazed, elements of the house are clad in timber and stone to soften its bold lines.

The glazed south elevation measures 2.9m tall and almost 18m across and features two sets of doors, one 6m wide and one 13.8m wide that incorporate fixed frame windows to create the continuous wall of glass. To provide a consistent appearance across the entire span, the panels of the SVG83 doors feature vertical plant-on bars that divide the panels into two, making it appear like their are many more individual panels than there actually are.

When the doors are opened they provide a seamless connection between inside and out, with the overhang of the roof creating a sheltered terrace that reduces the solar gain in the middle of summer into the house.

Location: Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire
Product/s: SUNFLEX UK SVG83 sliding doors – 19.8m span of doors, fixed frame windows and French doors – RAL7016 Anthracite Grey
Distributor: Park Farm Design

Contractor: Acanthus Developments Ltd
Project Manager: Acanthus Makes Ltd
Structural Engineers: TZG Partnership

Images used courtesy of Hamish Park Photography/Nick Baker Architects.