Cottage in The Palms
Overview
The project is located on the side of a Verdant Coombe Valley off the North Cornish Coast. The gardens extend to around one acre and are densely planted with an array of sub-tropical plants, which thrive in the Cornish climate.
The existing cottage dates back to the early 19th century and would have most likely been built for miners who worked in the local tin and copper mines. The brief was to renovate and reconfigure the cottage, and also add a two-storey extension which forged a stronger connection to the gardens and landscape beyond.
The form of the extension loosely mirrors the massing and orientation of the cottage and was conceived as a connected outbuilding so as to create a level of internal and external detachment from the cottage. The extension has its own vertical circulation and houses a bedroom and bathroom upstairs with living space and utility room below.
The external form of the extension was simplified to its basic geometry and the homogeneous approach to material and colour was chosen in an attempt to create a strong contrast with the natural colours of the site. We liked the idea of the extension existing as more of a strange object within a sub-tropical garden, rather than a typical extension to a quaint Cornish cottage.
