London · Est. 2005
Cove Ridge
A new family house cut low into the cliff, with a long terrace that follows the sun and a first-floor living room held quietly under a blackened ceiling.
A house cut low into the cliff.
The site sits on a steep flank above a stretch of north-facing coastline. The brief asked for a coastal house that would feel embedded in the landscape rather than perched on it — a building that could be lived in through the rough winter as well as the bright summer.
We dropped the lower floor a half-storey into the slope, so the bedrooms open directly onto a sheltered courtyard while the main living spaces sit a floor up, set behind a long terrace that catches the southern arc of the sun across the day.
Materials are quiet and weather-aware: lime-rendered walls outside, oak inside, a blackened timber soffit to the first-floor living room that holds the room close at dusk. The kitchen and dining occupy the long west end, and the view to the sea is held back rather than presented.
"The light is what we notice most. It moves through the rooms like it was designed for it — because it was."
Client
What it’s made of.
- Textured tyrolean render Signature 'blackened ceiling'
- Pale ash floor plank Living-room and bedroom floor
- Sheer white linen curtain Bedroom and bathroom curtain
- Honed near-black basalt Kitchen worktop and fireplace surround
- Pale rift-cut European oak Kitchen tall units and bathroom wardrobes
- Pale honed limestone paving slab Long sea-facing terrace
- Frameless clear float glass Sea-view picture window
- Brushed stainless steel Bath and kitchen tap fittings
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