Claywood House, Hampshire

Who Have We Worked With?

We worked alongside Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt Architects Design and supplied Taylor Maxwell with the bricks necessary to complete this project.

Why Was This Brick Chosen?

We supplied our RT154 Ultima Winter White Linear brick. The brick white house won House of the Year at the British Home Awards 2021. The design celebrates a beautiful setting and builds into the landscape itself. The house is cut away to direct views across the garden and away from the former home, creating sheltered living spaces and establishing a clear entrance. 

Brickwork was inspired by nearby historic brickwork and clay pits. The outbound ‘plinth’ is formed from pale coloured, long format bricks in the UK. Chambers and deep reveals express the depth and solidity of the ground floor, which contains the main living spaces, garage, and pool area. A ‘lightweight’ slatted timber cladding supports the ‘heavy’ brick plinth, containing the bedroom areas and annex. This element emerges from the trees with gaps that open in the slatted timber to reveal windows on the east and west façades. The timber slats are arranged in a rhythmic pattern designed to mimic the vertical trunks of the trees in the woodland opposite.

Low windows and specifically placed floor to ceilings were implemented to allow views into the garden whether standing or seated. It also includes wide corridors upstairs for easy passing. Recesses also give ample room for extra wide turning circles and a place to rest and enjoy the morning sun. The boundaries between indoors and outdoors is blurred using flush thresholds that simultaneously allows for easy wheelchair access into the landscapes garden. The new building also has a lift and provides facilities for the specialist care required by the client, including a physiotherapy pool, gym, carer’s suite. The building is also extremely airtight and well insulated, ensuring it is highly sustainable. There is also a ground source heat pump, a 12kw Photovoltaic array and a mechanical heat recovery ventilation system.