This cottage is located in the Wiltshire countryside overlooking the Kennett and Avon Canal, on the edge of the Vale of Pewsey. Our clients, one of whom is a bibliophile author and publisher, developed a fruitful relationship with RMA throughout three stages of work over a period of 25 years. The key to all the work was to keep the feeling of a cottage rather than turning it into a grand house and to make the final, underground, extension as light and open as possible.
The first extension housed a library and bedroom in a separate pavilion linked at ground floor. The second extension provided a new kitchen, dining room and two guest bedrooms, together with lots of bookcases, as well as upgrading the original cottage. When it came to a third extension the planners decreed that the limit had been reached for above-ground extensions, although they allowed a double garage with a utility room. The new book-store/ games room was therefore built underground, but is filled with natural light through a large roof light and glass doors cut into the hillside.