Yew Tree House

The ideas behind the project was to create an extension that worked subtly with the landscape.  

Great care was taken in how the extension meets the ground and the proportions of the supporting steel beams and singly ply flat roof. The desire was to move away from a box aesthetic to a more pavilion-like effect. 

The house is built of local stone which features as the back wall of the new extension. The stonework now flows seamlessly from outside to in. This aspect of the new addition further links it to the garden and was particularly important because the client for Yew Tree Cottage is a practicing landscape architect.  It was also important for the client that the new extension provides wide panoramic views overlooking the lanscape.

Inside, the kitchen and dining room together create a new contemporary space linked to the existing front family and reception rooms by the two remaining of existing doorways. These doorless openings are surrounded in blackened steel create gateways that provide a transition between the old and the new. The external entrance door to the glass extension also has a blackened steel surround, aligned with the doorway in the original stone wall creating a strong visual link between the historic house, the extension and the garden beyond. This surround allowed the structure supporting the extension along with the rainwater downpipes to be hidden, allowing the roof to feel like it is floating.

Yew Tree House, Upper Oddington, Cotswolds, Oxford
Program: extension of a single-family house
Architects: Jonathan Tuckey Design
Collaborators: East Abrooke (local practice)
Engineers: O'Brien Price Structural Engineers
Contractor:  N.C. Cox Building Contractors
Area: 55 sqm
Completion: 2014