Nexus House Gains Planning
We are delighted to have secured planning permission for Nexus House in the Green Belt in Oxfordshire. Consent in a protected landscape is never guaranteed, because you have to show, in plain sight, that the home will not disturb the wider setting.
Our clients came to us with a clear hope: a timber home for a maverick maker, a polymath and scientist, where books and knowledge and a place for deep research sits at the heart of daily life and where sustainability is integral, because a primarily timber structure and local materials reduce embodied carbon while allowing the architecture to remain discreet within the landscape.
From the outset our team worked in a clear sequence with our client and design team. We listened to the site, we kept the building as low as possible, and we tested the design from public paths and nearby viewpoints until the impact was genuinely as small as the brief would allow. The house is set into the contours of a hill so it sits lightly in the land, therefore long views remain calm and the ground feels uninterrupted with the introduction of a cantilevered living space.
The plot is framed by mature, well-established trees; we designed around them rather than treating them as a backdrop. They soften the edges and screen the home from the wider landscape, our viewpoint studies also helped demonstrate that in a way words never can.
The building is conceived in structural timber with a palette of local materials, because this setting demands warmth, and craft. A landscape strategy sits alongside the architecture, with planting and ground cover that help the house recede at its margins.
If you are planning a home in the Green Belt, this approach reduces risk. It relies on evidence, restraint, and careful testing from the public realm, therefore the project stands up to scrutiny and the home feels settled in its place.
Of course if you have a site in the Green Belt and you want an honest view on planning risk and design direction, get in touch. An early conversation can save months of uncertainty.
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