This building is located just off the high street in Hawkhurst, nestled in the shade of a wood. The cottage is a black painted timber clad house set in dialogue with a grade-II listed, Georgian family home clad in white painted clapboard, historically referred to as The Clearing.

Our ambition has been to respect not only the main house on the estate, but also to contribute to the wider surroundings and the village of Hawkhurst. Externally, we felt it appropriate to work with the language of a farm building – the type of structure that would have been found on the periphery of a village. Important to the building envelope is the articulation of the various details that punctuate what is a largely simple building, including the shallow overhang, bay windows, chimney and decking.

From the interior, the design seeks to structure a series of rooms that flow into one another. The sequence through the house is set out according to a series of “reveals” or progressions through spaces and their thresholds. Each room has been pro­portioned to accommodate a variety of uses.

While close to the high street, we thought it important that – upon entering the house – one loses an awareness of the village and associated traffic. Through careful framing, the focus becomes the open green or “clearing”, the surrounding trees and the sky above.