Dartmoor Residence

O’Brien Van der Sten workshops were invited to submit proposals for a significant replacement home on a steeply sloping site just outside the town of Chagford.  The river Teign forms the bottom edge of the site, cascading through the wild Dartmoor gardens with soaring ancient woodland running down to its far bank.

The brief was to create a family home away from the bustle of busy professional lives for a growing and dynamic young family.  The proposals sought to create a series of pavilions and interlinked spaces that stepped through and down the landscape, forming a series of distinct courtyards that changed from formal – almost Japanese – on the upper levels to wilder Dartmoor gardens as the site and house descended towards the river below and moorland beyond.