Hart House – A Modern Oak Home

This ambitious scheme, home to architect Jim Duffy and his wife Susie, involved demolishing an existing house and replacing it with a totally tailored new home.

Jim, who runs Add Architects, based the design on the traditional English black oak barn – but with a contemporary twist that would embrace the best of 21st century technology. And at the heart of the project is unusual glulam oak frame, supplied by Carpenter Oak.

As with any project, fitting in with the local vernacular was an important consideration – and the design of Hart House achieves this in a number of ways.

The linear, rectangular form of the new property is an echo of the original building, as are features such as the steep clay-tiled pitched roof, reclaimed bricks and black timber cladding.

This sensitive approach is also reflected internally, where the clean-lined glulam oak frame is held together with traditional oak-pegged mortice and tenons as well as dovetail joints.

The combination of the innovative Carpenter Oak frame and a wraparound of structural insulated panels from Glosford SIPs was a crucial part of this project.

The oak glulam posts and beams are extremely rigid and stable and, working in partnership with the racking resistance that’s provided by the SIPs panels, this has allowed Jim to introduce vast swathes of glazing.

The hybrid glulam oak and SIPs structure has also enabled the use of floating staircases, voids, vaulted spaces and bridges.

All of these features feed into an architecturally impressive living space that flows from the relatively private frontage through to an open, glazed rear elevation that leads into the garden.

The result is a bright, modern and energy efficient home – with the effect accentuated by a full-length run of rooflights at ridgeline level. This ensures natural illumination can penetrate deep into the floorplan.

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