← Hove House← Hove House

Hove House is the result of a collaborative process between Turner Works and local developer Baobab. It started as a development opportunity, but rapidly became a personal project for the client and his family. The challenge was set to nestle a deceptively large house onto an overlooked backland plot to create a spacious yet modest home for a growing family. The previous owners of the site had hived off the swimming pool and dilapidated pool house, and the pool formed the nucleus of our proposals.

The new house is a series of simple brick forms, largely single storey, with mono-pitch wildlife flower covered roofs, spiralling around the existing pool which has been completely revamped.

A simple palette of self-finished materials including black brick, flush struck mortar, composite timber windows and locally sourced sweet chestnut cladding - to silver with age, create a backdrop for lush planting by Nick Dexter. The house works with the sloped topography of the site to create a sequence of landscaped garden rooms and moments for family and friends.

In situ stairs, concrete flooring and white painted steel trusses continue the simple industrial approach to materials internally. A series of Sweet chestnut linings mimic the exterior and form a continuous backdrop to key spaces and picture widows that frames views both ‘in’ and ‘out’ of the building.

The Courtyard, Pool and terrace can be accessed directly from all living spaces along with the Master Bedroom, Guest and children’s bedrooms are situated in a quieter area of the lower ground floor - each room with access out to the lower garden.

The sloping roof profile and brick massing derives from the former pool house, bedded under the folding wildflower roof. The roof assists in incouraging native local species and reducing the perceived massing from the neighbouring houses and party fence lines. It forms the ‘fifth’ garden.