The contemporary english country bungalow

Clients:

The contemporary english country bungalow

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ENGLISH
COUNTRY
BUNGALOW

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The Contemporary English Country home by Jesse Sahlani is a unique bungalow that he had a lot of fun designing because of the large lot it’s set on. Everything about this home is a reflection of Jesse’s most intimate and honest thoughts of what it means to strike a balance between the authentically rustic style of the English countryside and a sleekly contemporary approach that supports lifestyle-focused living. The word we would associate with this home is “sprawling” as a result of its H-shaped footprint, which created the opportunity for Jesse to design and build a number of architecturally significant exterior facade faces that uniquely characterize the outdoor living spaces.

The rustic stone Jesse chose is a mixture of both limestone and fieldstone native to Ontario and features a flush mortar joint installation. The standing seam metal roof is made of zinc, an intentional selection by Jesse for the old-world style patina this material offers when exposed to the elements. However, in a standing seam format, this roofing material offers a new world design profile that he has blended with other, more rustic features to create an intentional yet suave juxtaposition.

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The front courtyard creates a grand entrance leading to the front door, lined with intricate gardens, accent trees, sculptures, and lighting features. As you approach the front of the home, you are greeted by a sturdy gable that features floor-to-ceiling windows and dormers on either side. This window style, featured throughout the home, is a noteworthy feature that serves to offer views into the uniquely designed interior that Jesse created while walking the same stylistically blended line.

A great example of the information offered by pairing 3D rendering with sketching is our ability to visualize what the home will look like during different times of day. The photos included above depict 6:30 am and 8:30 pm lighting conditions during the summer solstice. Using these models, we can understand how these lighting conditions impact the use of the amenities based on their locations. Everything from the daytime to mid-afternoon to evening lighting conditions creates very different ambiances that Jesse leverages to shape the design further. We can also use these renderings to understand the impact of our garden lighting plans. Consideration towards all angles of a design plan helps us weigh the impact of each decision on both exterior and interior spaces. This requires a high degree of master planning to achieve, and it is through this approach that Jesse is able to design experiential spaces of this caliber.

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The placement of the exterior amenities has been chosen very intentionally, with each serving to create flow and symmetry or maximize natural light based on the initial sun study. The list of outdoor amenities includes a pool that serves to reflect natural light onto the three faces of the courtyard, as well as into the home through the large floor-to-ceiling windows. This specific method of harnessing natural light is explained further in our blog article about our visit to the Palace of Versailles, where Jesse first learned about this method. His approach to maximizing natural light is only possible because of both the initial sun study he completes, as well as his multi-disciplinary design approach, which includes the initial custom home design, interior design, and landscape design. In later phases, these sun studies and design plans are turned into 3D renderings, offering us far more technical information that we use to perfectly optimize natural light.
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In his usual fashion, Jesse designed the home’s rear facade to characterize the backyard entertainment amenities, furthering the sense of cohesive luxury you experience no matter where you are on the grounds. This approach also furthers the sense of indoor/outdoor connection and architectural interest you experience no matter what window you look through, as every wing of the home is visible from another. This approach was also applied to the use of a cohesively designed guest house that creates the effect of the structure, and the sense of intentional design, sprawling to every corner of the property.

The outdoor amenities add to this effect, as they support a lifestyle-focused design plan that ensures you never need to leave the grounds to see through your day-to-day workout, relaxation, or entertaining routines. These amenities also serve to add a sense of luxury within the home as many of these features are aligned symmetrically with windows and further the sense of architectural interest experienced. Each amenity is considered an integrated design component instead of an afterthought. This is another great example of the master planning we apply to every project we commit to, as room flow and floor plan layouts are designed with these features in mind from the start.

The view from the dining room is another great example of how master planning creates an indoor/outdoor connection. Jesse used the unique “H” shaped footprint to ensure each room has a view of another cohesively designed wing of the home. By doing so, Jesse is bringing the architectural character into each of those spaces, capturing the character of the sprawling manors that grace the English countryside. These long, rambling homes almost always feature a courtyard that wraps the exterior amenities in their stylistic embrace.

The twin peaks of the English countryside characterize the bedroom wing wonderfully. The proportions of these peaked facades, the height of the chimney, and the size of the windows were all achieved through the initial hand sketching process. Viewers will see these peaks from the pool house, when relaxing under the covered loggia or in the dining room, lying by the pool, and walking through or working on the elaborate English gardens in the rear. A similar logic of the indoor/outdoor connection seen in other areas was applied here as well by positioning uniquely designed garden beds and landscape lighting in front of the bedroom windows.

In the above image, you might notice that the same field stone used to clad the home’s facade has also been applied to the living room fireplace. The intention behind this feature was to make it seem as if the fireplace was a structural component of the home that extended indoors out of necessity. By being in control of the interior design process, Jesse is able to curate features like this, aiding in the visual connection and offering an authentic touch to the design that carries through every detail.

To further this sense of bringing the outside in, Jesse designed the living room to include two perpendicular accordion doors with no curbs, reducing any visual barrier between spaces. These two doors retract, creating a 30 linear foot “L” shaped opening connecting the kitchen and the living room to the outdoor covered loggia space. These doors have had their tracks recessed into the foundation walls to create this effect.

The loggia features a heated concrete slab, which is a strategic inclusion by Jesse as it will serve as the primary source of heat when we enclose the front entrance of the loggia. The result is that the loggia can serve as an extension of the interior living space during the winter months.

To achieve this and ensure that the doors were watertight, we designed the grading plan to ensure these areas didn’t require steps up or down, and we designed the swale plan for the landscape design in a way that guides water away from this area to avoid the risk of flooding.

The end result is that there is a seamless connection between spaces, and no matter what window you look through, you have a direct view of another architecturally significant wing of the home, garden, or an outdoor entertainment amenity. This authentic commitment to developing a cohesive body of work speaks to the idea that every facade of the home we are responsible for designing is significant. Being dismissive of the impact of these facades instead of embracing them would be a crime when you look at a home as a total work of art.

The home’s interior focuses on a natural palette that utilizes white oak paneling to clad the ceiling and wall masses within the space. This theme carries through almost all common areas of the home, giving way to a warm environment that offers a sense of refined and rustic luxury.

The beauty of white oak paneling is that, with the right lighting, the material accentuates an ambient glow. Jesse is well known for using layered lighting to create both daytime and nighttime lighting schemes that can be used to set the mood, whatever the mood may be. The furnishing, however, is decidedly artistic in form, offering an almost sculptural feel to the space through the pairing of organic shapes and unique forms that contrast the rigid stone exterior.

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