Bellevue Cottage, Bristol

A contemporary new-build house tucked in to a steeply sloping urban site in the heart of Bristol.

The original site housed a set of single storey garages, it was a tricky urban plot with many constraints. The plan is a simple rectangle, with the open plan ground floor partly subdivided by a central stair. This carries through at first floor to allow a master suite to one side and two more bedrooms opposite.

The main frontage features large expanses of glazing to make the most of the views over the Bristol harbourside. The roadside elevations are more careful in their window placement to maintain privacy, for both the new occupiers and the existing neighbours. The clerestory in the kitchen became a key feature in the final design, allowing light deep into the plan, and breaking the massing in to two stacked volumes.