Radwinter Round House

Round the houses

Newly built house, Radwinter, Essex

This new house built in an old orchard turns mainly to face the sun with radial views of the fields and gardens in all directions. Round in plan, exposed Oak inside and out, the long straw eyebrowed thatch roof is truncated with a large rooflight at its crown.

A kind of domestic Globe Theatre.

The rural two-acre site in north Essex contains three generations of oak-framed & thatched building. The first is a crooked house made from a late-medieval pair, the second a granary barn that started life five hundred years ago a mile away and the third is this brand new roundhouse, named Panteidal after the river it sits next to.

Together, the three buildings are lived in by three generations of Pilsbury, Thomas, Buck family and the conservation and listed buildings architecture practice Kay Pilsbury Thomas Architects (www.kaypilsbury.co.uk).

Service: Architects with Kay Pilsbury Thomas Architects

Location: Radwinter, Essex, UK

Client: Kay Pilsbury & Peter Thomas

Cost: £314k

Areas: GIFA 125m2

Dates: January 2010 – May 2012

Energy: BREEAM Excellent equivalent

To Live In   To Learn In   To Work In   To Play In