Bob Moxon-Browne is a man of strongly held principles, as you would expect in
a QC and a deputy judge. So when it came to building his timber-framed
house, Lyneham Coombe in the Teign Valley, Devon, two years ago, he had no
intention of cluttering the countryside with “just another” second home.
“I had reached a time in life when I wanted to create something worthwhile,”
says Moxon-Browne, 61, who lives in North London and practises from chambers
in Temple Gardens, specialising in the Technology and Construction Court. “I
wanted to create a house that was both environmentally friendly and an
ambitious architectural statement.” So with this notion in mind,
Moxon-Browne turned to his brother-in-law, the internationally renowned
Swedish architect Bengt Warne. “I phoned Bengt and he came to Britain
immediately. We talked through ideas over several bottles of wine for a
whole week, and eventually he outlined rough plans for this house. It was to
be my cathedral in the woods.”
The location that Warne chose for Lyneham Coombe could hardly be more
dramatic. You approach the house down a rough drive and it sits framed in
its own wooded valley, like a giant Swiss chalet. When you go in you find a
rather featureless marble-tiled lobby, but there is also a solid walnut
staircase, cantilevered off a central spine and giving the impression of
floating in air, which draws the eye to the floor above. Climb the stairs
towards the light and you find the living area: Warne's showpiece room that
gives the house its sense of theatre. Warne specialised in the use of
timber-and-glass houses built in woodland, his central philosophy being that
a house should be “part of nature”. This room, with its high vaulted ceiling
and its huge floor-to-ceiling windows looking out across the treetops, is
typical of his work. From it you walk out on to decking, straight into the
southern gardens that are sculpted into the surrounding slopes.
It is, at 100sqm (1,076sqft), a vast living space and it prompts the question
of how it could be used. “Possibly as a performance area for a musician,
because the acoustics are excellent, or as an exhibition space for an
artist,” says Moxon-Browne. “I see this as a home for a philosopher or a
writer - it may not suit your average family.” Sustainability was the second
thread of Warne's philosophy and the house is extremely green. The timber
beams are lined with foil-backed insulating material first developed in the
Nasa space programme, and the large areas of double glazing are filled with
inert argon gas - another excellent insulator. The underfloor heating is
fuelled by LPG gas, which is very efficient for the purpose. Overall,
Moxon-Browne estimates that these measures have halved the heating bills
that you would expect to pay for a house of this size.
Leading off the dramatic main living area there is a kitchen and a master
bedroom. This is essentially an upside-down house, and a second staircase
leads down to the four guest bedrooms. The ground floor has its interesting
features, too. The comparatively modest-sized television room is a cosy
contrast to the vast main room upstairs, and the decked terrace offers
wonderful views over the valley.
The planning that has gone into the grounds is breathtaking. At the bottom of
the valley a culvert has been dug to make a “surge stream” fed by rainwater
from the hillside. Rocks and pebbles have been placed on its bed, so that
the stream “sings” when in flood. Then there are the two wells, one feeding
the drinking water system and the other supplementing the “grey” recycled
water captured from the roof. You will look in vain for signs of suburban
neatness, such as closely trimmed lawns. Instead, you find acid-loving
shrubs such as rhododendrons, Devon violets and camellias spreading up the
valley to the meadow grass surrounding the house.
Warne had cancer diagnosed just as he was completing his plans for the house
and he died in December 2006. It would have been unthinkable simply to
abandon the project, so another architect, Richard Webster, was drafted in
to take Warne's place and building work was placed in the hands of John
Ward, an expert on timber-frame constructions.
Lyneham Coombe took more than 18 months to complete altogether, and it was by
no means all plain sailing. Moxon-Browne still shudders as he recalls the
anxious moments when the enormous glass windows, costing £60,000, were
gingerly shifted into position. It was an expensive project. The site alone
cost £275,000 and the basic building costs were more than £600,000, which
meant that when finance and administrative costs were accounted for the
house cost more than £1million to build. So why, it must be asked, is
Moxon-Browne selling? “I am still busy working and I'm not ready to live in
Devon yet,” he says. “Anyway, my wife, Kicki, is a city girl who comes over
nauseous if she's more than ten minutes' walk from a cinema or a theatre.
“But when I do eventually retire I'm going to build myself another
eco-friendly house, like this one but smaller. It will have a pool and I can
see myself there, sipping endless Martinis. It's not just a dream. I'm going
to do it.”
Lyneham Coombe is for sale with Jackson-Stops&Staff for £1.4 million
(01392 214222) and was built by John Ward of Sirius Projects (01275 837935).
FACT FILE
How green is your house? Compare it with the techniques and features used to
build Lyneham Coombe, below:
Double-thick Pilkington K glass, with cavity filled by argon gas
Minimal use of concrete and cement - confined to foundations, retaining walls
and floor slabs
On-site concrete mixing was banned to prevent ground pollution
Roof shingles are secured with stainless steel rather than copper nails
Pipes are plastic; no lead was used anywhere in the house's construction
Laminated timber frame and cedar roof All water comes from wells (no mains)
Effluent is oxygen-treated by state-of-the-art “Titan” equipment.
TWO ECO-HOUSES FOR SALE
Coxheath, Kent
What you get: An innovative collection of one and two-bedroom apartments and
two, three and four-bedroom houses.
Where it is: On the site of the former Linton Hospital, the Avante development
is in Coxheath, four miles from Maidstone. The village has its own shops,
pubs and primary school.
Eco features: Low-energy lighting, a whole-house ventilation system with heat
recovery, and a central lantern that floods the homes with natural light, as
well as providing more ventilation. Glazing is minimised in bedrooms but
maximised in living areas to reduce heat loss and increase solar gain
respectively. The homes are rated “very good” or “excellent” by EcoHomes.
Price: From £195,000.
Contact: Crest Nicholson, 0870 7559830, www.crestnicholson.com
Up Nately, Hants
What you get: Four bedrooms (one en suite), two shower rooms,
kitchen/breakfast room, two reception rooms, study, car port, gravelled
parking area and garage.
Where it is: Queens Lace is in the village of Up Nately, Hampshire, with views
over the Basingstoke Canal one way and fields the other. It is three miles
from Hook and five miles from Basingstoke.
Eco features: An individual timber-framed Scandia Hus built about five years
ago. Scandia Hus properties use Swedish engineering technology to achieve
energy efficiency; all homes are triple glazed, have a high level of
insulation and airtight construction.
Cost: £795,000.
Contact: Strutt & Parker, 01256 702892, www.struttandparker.com
