Church Cottage
Suffolk, 2025
Church Cottage transforms an 18th century farmworkers house in Braiseworth, Suffolk, by reworking an existing 2011 extension and adding a bold new wing with a hairy oak shake exterior. Formerly two 18th century labourer’s dwellings, living in the existing cottage was hampered by the tiny cellular rooms and eccentric circulation. Minute windows failed to connect the cottage with its picturesque grounds, a significant shortcoming for the gardener and landscape printmaker clients.
Set to the south of the original cottage, the new wing is a significant departure from the linear form of the traditional Suffolk cottage, instead purposefully drawing upon local agricultural forms. A wildflower meadow roof pitches up away from the existing house towards a towering new brick chimney stack. Above a local red brick plinth the elevations are wrapped in a skin of hand cleft English oak shakes.
The works have radically transformed the cottage’s living spaces. A counterpoint to the snug rooms of the existing house, the extension provides a generous kitchen, dining and living space within a bold vaulted volume. Carefully placed robust timber windows frame views into the verdant landscape and rooflights pour light deep into the square plan.
The small 2011 extension has been subsumed into the new wing, having been completely rearranged to provide a pantry, utility space and wc. A practical mud / boot room is inserted into the previously minute kitchen, providing a valuable transition space for the gardener client. The front entrance has been reconfigured, with a new oak framed canopy providing a sheltered spot to take boots on and off and search for your keys in the horizontal Suffolk rain.
As the new wing settles into the surrounding luscious garden and the meadow roof grows into a wild part of the surrounding landscape the project has created a series of joyful and generous spaces allowing the clients to share their home and enjoy stronger connections with their much loved garden and the wider wild Suffolk landscape.
“This really is the most wonderful space to be in and such a transformation to our lives!” Church Cottage client
A Bold Reworking of a Listed Cottage
Suffolk, 2025
The existing picturesque thatched cottage is grade II listed. A previous pre application submission by another design team had established the principal of development for an extension but it’s scale and relationship to the historic cottage had been questioned by the local authority.
How to create the more generous spaces required by the brief in the sensitive context of the diminutive existing structure was an important consideration. We undertook meticulous research to unravel the history of the site, ensuring that the proposals were informed by the building’s past and embraced the potential of the found conditions.
A series of working sketch models at a range of scales were built to develop proposals with the clients and demonstrate the evolution of the design as the relationship of these interconnected spaces were tested.
