Chestnut Plantation, Netley Marsh, Hampshire

2024 RIBA South Award

Chestnut Plantation, Netley Marsh, Hampshire
John Pardey Architects for private client
Contract value: Confidential 
GIA: 200m²

Standing in a small woodland glade on the edge of the New Forest National Park, this new home is set out around a courtyard to maximise both the site’s orientation and the arrangement of accommodation. A local planning policy limited the design of this replacement home to the size of a ‘small dwelling’ – no greater than 100m². However, the architect overcame this restriction by creating a compact one-bedroom home with a generous outbuilding, housing a garage, flexible home office space and storage. The two buildings sit across from one another, sharing a wildflower meadow in the courtyard. Chestnut Plantation is a simple but effective mini-home, designed to suit its owners’ specific needs and collections. The carefully sited building enhances the setting of the National Park, showcasing the potential of small but mighty dwellings.

The buildings run parallel to  a busy road to the south, with the subservient outbuilding structure sitting adjacent to the boundary and providing a welcome buffer for the house beyond. Arriving along the west elevation, the garage sits ahead, with the entrance to the house under the large pitched overhanging gable end. This front door opens into an entrance hall which extends to form a corridor along the glazed south-facing elevation. From this corridor the whole house unfolds: an open-plan living and dining room and kitchen, a guest toilet, utility room and a master bedroom suite. The functional accommodation is assembled in the middle forming a white box within the open barn-like structure. The two principal rooms – living area and bedroom – sit at either end, taking advantage of views out to the garden and adjoining forest. From these rooms doors open up to the south, sheltered by the eaves, with a pathway leading across to the outbuilding which is simply formed of two rooms (garage and studio), covered by a sedum roof.

The timber structure and simple material palette are used effectively, with photovoltaic panels carefully designed into the south-facing zinc roof. An air-source heat pump furthers the on-site renewable energy supply, alongside a wood-burning stove served by the adjoining managed plantation.

Chestnut Plantation is a simple but effectual mini home, designed to suit its owners’ particular collections and needs. Carefully sited, the building enhances the setting of the National Park, showcasing the potential of small but mighty dwellings.

See the rest of the RIBA South winners here. And all the RIBA Regional Awards here

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RIBA Regional Awards 2024 sponsored by EH Smith and Autodesk