The Parlour_

The Parlour reclaims a derelict site in the Huddersfield countryside. Once occupied by a commercial building and part of a working farm, the land had lost its purpose. The ambition was to bring it back into use with two substantial contemporary homes — generous in space and character, but quiet enough to belong. A new chapter for an established site.

The Green Belt drew a hard line around what was possible. A building had stood here before, and its footprint and volume became the envelope for what could follow. Two homes had to emerge from the space once occupied by one commercial building — without pushing further into the landscape or simply adding more mass. The planning strategy with Kirklees Council demanded a measured response to openness, scale and the established footprint. Existing trees were to remain. Buffer zones had to be respected. And beneath it all, the site fell steeply away. Tight parameters. Significant ambition.

The topography unlocked the architecture. From the front, the houses sit at just one-and-a-half storeys, their rooflines kept deliberately low against the landscape. As the ground falls, they open to two-and-a-half storeys at the rear — finding space through level rather than footprint. Interlocking pitched forms fragment the mass and echo the rhythm of Yorkshire farm buildings without imitation. Natural sandstone and slate bring familiarity; timber, metal and expansive glass sharpen the language. Trees frame the architecture. Generous buffers create separation. The landscape does the rest.

The result is a pair of substantial homes that reveal their scale slowly. Restrained on arrival. Expansive to the rear. Stone and slate anchor them to the Huddersfield landscape, while timber, metal and glass make the architecture unmistakably contemporary. What began as a derelict Green Belt site is now precise, inhabited and purposeful. The footprint remains disciplined. The volume remains controlled. Everything else has been reimagined.