Old browser alert!

We have detected you are using a pretty old browser. This website along with other modern websites on the web uses cool features that can't be supported by your browser, not to mention the security vulnerabilities.

If we let you see the website it would look all weird and broken, nobody wants that!

Go on - update your browser!

Kennedy House

The house sits at the westernmost end of the linear village of Stoke Row in the Chilterns, with distant views to the west and north across rolling farmland.
The design is based on a ‘pinwheel’ plan formed from storey-height slate walls that divide the site and domestic accommodation into quadrants – while bedrooms at first floor a linear timber-clad volume floats across on a north-south orientation.

A single-storey wing and a projecting slate wall that leads to a storey-height front door define an entrance court. Once within a view along the entire length of the house is revealed.

To one side a lies a garage and guest suite, to the other utility and a bedroom and tv room (for the client’s disabled brother), both sitting beneath a green roof.

Directly ahead a largely glazed living-dining-kitchen space nestles beneath the upper volume to enjoy the north and westerly views. A masonry fireplace creates separation between the living and dining spaces. At the crux of the plan is a top-lit, double-height stair hall with a large open plan study area above. This plan arrangement creates a sheltered courtyard garden to the west.

The upper ‘box’ cantilevers to both ends is expressed as a ‘sleeve’, providing shaded a balcony serving the study area to the south and a fully glazed wall to the master bedroom suite to the north.

The upper volume is clad in vertical slats of Sweet Chestnut above a continuous clerestorey. Chestnut and pre-weathered zinc infill panels complete the composition.

The house utilises a ground source heat pump serving underfloor heating and a woodburning stove in the fireplace at the heart of the house.

Client Julian & Dr. Pamela Kennedy
Status Completed (2012)
Contract value £1,300,000
GIA m2 521 m2
Structural engineer Barton Engineers
Contractor Ridgetree Projects
Photography © James Morris
Last project Next project