Traditional Homes, Extension, Historic Homes Danielle Cope Traditional Homes, Extension, Historic Homes Danielle Cope

Our First Project

In 2025 we are 25 years old, so over the year we are going to pick out 25 of our favourite projects from the archive to share with you.

Some are already well known, some less so, but all are special to us for different reasons and we hope you will enjoy this look into the first 25 years of our practice.

Kicking things off is our first ever project. This charming farmhouse was carefully designed to break down its visual mass with the main building formed from rubble stone being supplemented by a rear wing, a rendered service wing and a timber clad garage block.

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The Artistic Qualities of a Sketch

Whilst beautifully rendered watercolour drawings are excellent as presentation drawings, sometimes the artistic qualities of a sketch conveys the idea being discussed and we often produce concept sketches to communicate the interior ambiance and spaces we are designing.

This sketch is of a vaulted kitchen breakfast room as part of the remodelling of a large country house in West Berkshire.

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Traditional Homes, Gothic Style, Historic Homes Danielle Cope Traditional Homes, Gothic Style, Historic Homes Danielle Cope

A Gothic Style Remodel

Details make a building and we particularly enjoy the thinking that goes into each and every move we make as part of the design process.

A good example is the window above the porch of this country house we recently remodelled in a Gothic style. The window is divided by a transom to keep the rhythm of the fenestration, but the window itself sits behind, maximising the amount of glazing the window has.

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Conversion and Character

Converting existing buildings is a balancing act of the proposed use with the character of the building.

Introducing new glazing can be particularly tricky, but sometimes the building itself will give you the answer. The large dormer window on this barn conversion in Wiltshire proved the inspiration for two further dormers, greatly increasing the light into the building, without appearing alien in character.

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Traditional Homes, Conservation, Historic Homes Danielle Cope Traditional Homes, Conservation, Historic Homes Danielle Cope

Unusual Discoveries Through Conservation

We are lucky to see some very unusual buildings in the course of our conservation work.

You wouldn’t normally expect to find an industrial chimney in the back garden of a mid-1800s country house, but our research discovered an interesting story as to why. The settlement where the house is, was a built for the workers of a lumber mill which was originally steam powered. After three catastrophic fires as a result of embers catching sawdust alight, the chimney was moved further from the engines and into the garden of the mill owner’s house where it remains to this day, now under our watchful eye.

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