Ivy Cottage, Ermington, United Kingdom. Architect: David Sheppard Architects, 2013.

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Ivy Cottage is a former postman’s cottage. The owner hired architect David Sheppard to create a traditional home on his family’s estate along the River Erme in Devon, England. The original plan was to demolish a small stone outbuilding on the property however when David Sheppard learned history of the cottage, formerly the local postman who delivered the mail by pony and trap the plan was revised. The idea was to radiate out from a point within the small enclosure into the field beyond anchoring and composing a linear organic form, capturing light through an expressive fanned shaped roof, defining the spaces within to a scale that was articulated to compliment and enhance the humble dwelling. The resulting roof peeks and serpentine stone wall make a proportional reference in terms of scale and mass. Although linear in form to the existing building there is a hierarchy in the form with emphasis on the original small enclosure.