Eavesdrop House / Tom Dowdall Architects

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The brief was for a home that did not require as much maintenance, could easily 'open up' to entertain friends or host family, had gardens that were more manageable in their retirement, and for the home to be a part of the landscape.The house sits off a long garden wall that connects two large oak trees and divides the landscape between the existing formal gardens to the north and a wild meadow to the south. The form, materiality, and structural logic of the house draw reference to the simple agricultural buildings of the High Weald, which sit so proudly within their landscape, with their sweeping, often sunken roofs and simplicity of construction. The stone refers to the Wealden Sandstone of the listed Lodge, though using a harder Clipsham stone, and displaying different tooling and cutting techniques to its surface. The skewed roof line, which rises towards the southwest corner of the house, creates a hierarchy of the interior spaces, the highest point being the main living area.At the center of the house, and conceived as the most important 'room' of the house, is the courtyard. It organises the plan; living spaces to the West side and the sleeping bedrooms to the East. It is a room that provides fresh air and sunshine whilst protecting from the winds. A room with plants to be appreciated all year round; specimen trees, grasses, plants, and herbs. The courtyard is fully openable with large sliding glazing on all four corners, offering cross ventilation on the hottest summer days and an alternative way to move through the house.Text description provided by the architects.Eavesdrop is a country house set within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in West Sussex. It was designed by practice founder Tom Dowdall as a home for his parents to enjoy in their retirement. The house sits on the grounds of their previous home, a Grade II listed Lodge house, where they had lived for more than forty years. They are both keen gardeners and had created a magical formal garden in their previous home.The entire fabric of the house is built to Passivhaus standards, with exceptionally low air tightness and high thermal efficiency. Using the local vernacular as a starting point, the practice's innovative approach to Eavesdrop sees these traditionally used structural strategies implemented through modern methods of construction. This is demonstrated by the primary structure which is made up of a steel portal frame braced with SIP panels in between, and with engineered LVL timber for the roof structure. Designed to work seamlessly with the roof's varying ridge line, this system keeps all load-bearing elements at Eavesdrop within the external walls, leaving the internal partitions to be adapted or removed as required, to meet changing accessibility needs and permit material reuse.