-
Architects: Hyde + Hyde Architects
- Area: 490 m²
- Year: 2021
-
Photographs:Martin Gardner
Text description provided by the architects. Castle High is a contemporary farmhouse in the Pembrokeshire National Park. This extraordinary coastal home - built by the owner for his family over a decade - is a testament to hard work, persistence and dedication. The owners approached Hyde + Hyde in 2010 to develop a master plan for their smallholding, which occupies an exposed site close to the Pembrokeshire coast. As the current generation of an old farming family, they were determined to remain on the site but found the existing 1950s farmhouse in poor condition, thermally inefficient and no longer fit for purpose. This had replaced the site's original working farmhouse, which would have framed a functional, sheltered courtyard alongside the traditional stone outbuildings. However, the replacement house lacked the integrity of the older buildings, and its seemingly random position left the courtyard open to harsh prevailing winds and violent storms, slowly falling into disrepair.
The new farmhouse is simple and minimal, combining robustness and resilience with openness and transparency. Central to the design is the project's ability to reframe the courtyard again, completing the horseshoe shape of the existing outbuildings with a contemporary new wing. Its position within the National Park demanded a high quality and contextual response: the new home is sensitive in form and scale, bringing together old and new in an arrangement that respects and responds to the site's location, climate and character. This was a real labor of love for the clients, executed as a self-build project over ten years as their time and budgetary constraints allowed.
The ground floor contains a generous open-plan living space, with curtain wall glazing providing views of the courtyard and the sea. This transparency from the inner courtyard to the landscape beyond was critical and created an intimate feeling of flow. At the first-floor level, a corridor looks into the courtyard, while the children's bedrooms occupy the faceted outer façade, with windows angled towards the view. The master bedroom, hidden to the west, has commanding views towards the Irish Sea. Alongside the contemporary wing, an adjacent, repurposed outbuilding retains a more traditional, cellular arrangement to house guest accommodation, a games room and a study.
Responding to the exposed nature of the site, the project required a robust, low-maintenance material palette. Inspired by the weathering of pebbles on the nearby shoreline, the new wing is built from white, fair-faced concrete. This provides a sculptural sense of solidity when paired with generous glazing and tonal and textural contrast with the farmstead's traditional buildings. Other materials, such as black recyclable titanium-coated Anthrazinc roofing and a Corten rain-screen, were chosen for their long-wearing qualities - each a nod to the materiality of surrounding agricultural typologies.
