At just a 20-minute walk from the centre of Henley-on-Thames and located in a leafy cul-de-sac, 4 Thorne Close, is in pretty much the perfect location.
Yet, despite occupying a very generous plot, the original house was decidedly lacklustre.
When Plansplus client, Jason Clegg and his wife first viewed the property, back in 2020, they were surprised to discover cramped bedrooms and a poor layout with no real space for the family to spend quality time together. Worse still, a catalogue of concealed structural defects and an unauthorised extension offered glimpses of even more challenges ahead!
However, for the Clegg family, these challenges offered up opportunities, rather than obstacles.
Having worked with architectural designer, Martyn Phillips previously, the Cleggs had every confidence they could create a space to match the quality of their current home and allow the family to grow.
Great location, shame about the structure!
Set within a close of just five houses, this property looked impressive from the road. Walk around the back however, and the missed opportunity was clear. This house lacked any real depth (hence the tiny bedrooms that struggled to contain a double wardrobe) and the original construction was far below par: in fact, as the team began to investigate, they discovered the delights of:
- Persistent mould ingress in the bedrooms, ultimately traced to floor levels that had been raised above the damp-proof course, allowing moisture to migrate through the wall construction.
- Salt efflorescence and advanced corrosion to electrical fittings in the ground-floor cloakroom, consistent with prolonged moisture exposure within the structure.
- Evidence of fire damage to wiring behind the kitchen, originating from a defectively installed underfloor heating system, with degradation extending to the consumer unit.
- Heavily oxidised and porous copper pipework throughout the property, necessitating a complete replacement of the entire plumbing installation.
The cumulative effect of these discoveries was that a refurbishment became, in practice, a comprehensive reconstruction. The family vacated the property for a period of seven to eight months while the building was stripped to its structural frame and entirely renewed from within.
From brief to design solution: Family comes first
Family is absolutely at the heart of this brief.
Having lived in the property for six months before formally engaging Plansplus, Jason arrived at the first design meeting with a clear sense of what the house needed to become.
The requirements were both spatial and experiential: greater room volume, a more fluid and connected ground-floor plan, and an interior environment that would accommodate the rhythm of family life, with two teenage daughters, Connie, the Cocker Spaniel, and a carefully assembled collection of contemporary art that had been acquired over some fifteen years.
Martyn’s particular skill, and the one Jason values most, lies in his capacity to receive a brief of this kind — part practical, part aspirational — and translate it into a coherent (and buildable) architectural proposition.
Rather than moderating the family’s ambitions, he worked to find design solutions that would give full expression to them within the constraints of planning, structure and budget.
Reconfiguring the ground floor for open-plan living
Martyn’s design solution addressed the need for interconnecting (yet separate) family spaces.
The rear of the property was reconfigured to create a generous, fluid sequence of kitchen, dining and living spaces, opening to the garden through a combination of Crittall-style steel-framed glazing and French doors.
A raised lounge area — positioned to capture the garden outlook and benefit from natural daylight throughout the day — forms part of the social nucleus of the home and provides a gallery space for the family’s pop art collection. A formal sitting room, enclosed by Crittall-glazed internal doors offers privacy when needed and an office snug, enlarged to accommodate a sofa, offers further retreat space (appropriated enthusiastically by the family’s daughters as a private sitting room!)
Navigating the planning process: Persistence is key
Understanding the planning process (and the concerns of the local planning officer) is key to securing consent.
Martyn and Jason’s first application was ambitious: a composition of multiple gable-ends at varying depths, with carefully modulated overhangs producing a rear elevation with the wow factor. The application was progressing satisfactorily with the original case officer, and a request to simplify the rear roofline was easily addressed.
With a change in personnel came a change in perspective. Concerns raised at the scale of development (relative to the size of the plot) were addressed with a swift site meeting and a walk through of the garden and setting. It’s worth noting that site and setting aren’t always communicated easily on paper – a first-hand assessment and a collaborative conversation can often remove concerns.
Box clever with your budget
Post-pandemic, construction costs soared and budgetary constraints meant ambitions were adjusted and a third, more economic application submitted to planning.
Building on a budget isn’t necessarily a barrier – and with the precedent for development already established – Martyn used his extensive experience to refine the design and simplify construction, reducing materials and costs.
The critical adjustments were structural: a reconfiguration of the steel frame specification allowed the same overall footprint to be achieved with a materially simpler construction sequence, reducing labour and materials without compromising on quality of space.
The relationship between architect and contractor is not always without tension, particularly on a project of this scale and complexity. Indecision carries a cost and Martyn’s continuous engagement with the project, commitment to being available and instinctive understanding of the process, have been invaluable.
Design decisions: Details that make the difference
Details – material and product selection – make a huge difference to the quality of feel in the final design solution. For Jason and his family there were some important choices to make, not least:
- Crittall-steel framed glazing is central to the character of the house. Having previously installed bi-fold doors in their last property, Jason and his wife wanted visual texture and a stronger architectural language from this build. The slender, grid-patterned frames of the Crittall system, combining an industrial robustness with a certain refined elegance, were identified early in the process as the defining element of the new interior.
- A restrained colour palette (and the selection of neutral tones) helps to provide a coherent backdrop, not only to the architectural glazing, but also to the family’s art collection. Pieces selected over fifteen years — vivid, large-format works drawing on the traditions of pop art and contemporary painting — are positioned on generous expanses of plain wall, lit to advantage and set in striking contrast against the geometry of the steel-framed glazing behind them. The result is an interior in which architecture, light and art function as an integrated whole.
- Careful selection of lighting: the family rejected their first choice of blown-glass pendant fittings from Rothschild & Bickers in favour of contemporary Original BTC lighting, manufactured locally in Witney. A comprehensive zoned lighting system, operating in conjunction with downlighters of varied aperture and beam specification, allows each area of the house to be set to an appropriate mood, and creates an atmosphere of considerable warmth and comfort.
- This family wouldn’t be complete without Connie the Cocker Spaniel and by incorporating a beautiful butler style purposely designed dog shower into the utility room, every member of the family has the wash facilities they need, and cleaning up after muddy walks is a breeze.
- Adding Juliette balconies to the first-floor rear bedrooms adds architectural quality to the rear elevation and draws in natural light to deep-plan spaces without increasing structural complexity and cost.
Clever reconfiguration of first floor has removed cramped unusable bedrooms and enabled both teenage daughters to have their own en-suite bathroom alongside a brand-new principal bedroom suite.
Working with Martyn
Jason has engaged Martyn on two separate residential projects over the course of 14-years. That longevity speaks volumes: Jason has recommended Martyn to friends and family members for projects locally in Oxfordshire, and in the Cotswolds.