Orchard House, Dorset

2022 - 2025
Dorset

Orchard House is a new extension and refurbishment of a traditional Dorset farmhouse by Studio MAY, designed to accommodate a couple and their visiting family. Rather than enlarging the main house, the design retains the existing three-storey farmhouse for sleeping, while replacing a group of timber outbuildings with a low-impact, highly insulated extension.

Studio MAY proposed to retain the existing three storey farmhouse as sleeping accommodation, whilst creating a new extension on the footprint of the demolished lightweight timber outbuildings. The spaces were centred around a large, 4.5m tall dining area, whilst the his-and-her workspaces (a wood workshop and textile studio respectively) would be placed at either end of the proposal. A buffer of utility spaces divides these living and working areas from each other.

Orchard’s Dining Area

The New Extension © Rory Gaylor

The building set amongst the landscape.

Set within a new landscape designed by Hortus Collective, the building is intended to be entirely surrounded by planting except for the doorways.

The house was built using a range of sustainable materials such as hemp blocks and wood fibre insulation with the aim of using materials that didn’t require specialist application. This was to reduce the perception of natural building materials costing more.

The roof, designed by Structure Workshop, doesn’t contain any steels, instead using a diapraghm of plywood to span a seven metre wide series of rooms.

The walls are formed of a timber frame, and insulated with UK made hemp blocks, as well as wood fibre insulation (cork in wet areas). Ventilated by MVHR, the space aims to breathe through the natural clay renders inside and outside.

The new proposal is centred around a lofty dining area and kitchen. The roof has been created using a ‘diaphragm’ of Douglas Fir and plywood to create a span free space without steel. The link to the original farmhouse is to the right- which can be closed by two large sliding doors.

To the northern end of the house lies the client’s textile studio. Overlooking the chalk valley and pond (filled, as we found out, with Great Crested Newts) the dual aspect space is amply lit and ventilated by MVHR as well as a rooflight. Quilts- the client’s main output- hang from the ridgeline. This studio is adjacent to a small studio also suitable for gymnastics.

Orchard is set within a new landscape, although the soft planting has been paused to allow the house to nestle into the surrounding AONB. When grown the planting will meld at low level and leave only the doors visible, and a chance to look out from the internal spaces into the garden.

As a counterpoint, his space forms a large wood working studio, partly making use of the existing stables on site. The language of the Douglas Fir is visible here, but structurally diverse- in part because above there is a bat loft, built in line with Dorset’s planning requirements.

Eaves, photo by Studio MAY

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