In the midst of stunning mature trees on greenbelt land, this house satisfies the outstanding design requirements of the precious site
WORDS JENNIFER GRIMBLE PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID VALINSKY
Constructing a home wasn’t on the agenda for Christian and Audrey Iwasko. ‘We’re not house people,’ says Christian. ‘We hadn’t spent 30 years thinking about our dream home.’ But circumstances led the couple to embark on a lengthy self-build project spanning several years.
After searching for a new home for two years without success, in 2017 they began looking for a plot to build on and found a 1930s house on seven acres of woodland in Sevenoaks, Kent. ‘The site has beautiful views and gave us the inspiration to build something,’ says Christian.
After hiring an architecture practice, Christian and Audrey, who are both 47 and have three daughters, started talking through their preferences, asking the practice to deliver a contemporary and sustainable home. ‘We wanted to incorporate some Japanese influences,’ says Audrey. ‘Having visited the country, we love the temples and were keen to bring a sense of tranquillity to the house and grounds.’
During a two-year-long design process, the practice went back and forth with lawyer Christian and Audrey, who works in education, to perfect the plans. ‘As the house is on greenbelt land, it was important to preserve the site’s openness through landscape integration and by minimising its environmental impact,’ says architect Nicolas Tye. So the building takes up the highest part of the plot and is partially sunk into the slope – making it look less imposing than it might otherwise – limiting the amount of excavation work and leaving as much of the land untouched as possible.
There are bedrooms on the lower ground level with living spaces on the upper ground floor. On the flat roof, there’s a lone living room, located inside a mirror-glass box that reflects the surrounding landscape. It opens to a roof terrace, which has far-reaching views of the woodland.
A combination of reinforced concrete pad and slab foundations support the lower ground floor’s concrete retaining walls and slab floor. The steel frame above includes steel beam and concrete planks on the upper ground level and roof structure, topped by the living room’s steel beams with joists.
Working together with planning consultants and the local council,
