Case study

Contemporary rooflights create low energy, sustainable ‘forever home’ for retired couple

A modern house featuring a combination of thatched and metal roofs, surrounded by a landscaped yard with pathways. The structure has large windows that illuminate the interior at dusk. Countryside trees and distant buildings are visible in the background.

Overview

CDC Studio designed a striking, contemporary yet heritage-rooted home featuring Glazing Vision rooflights throughout to enhance daylight, ventilation, and seamless indoor-outdoor living for their retired clients.

Details

Architect

CDC Studio

Products used

A modern living space with a light-colored sofa adorned with decorative pillows. The room features an open layout connecting to a dining area with a dark wall and a skylight above. Large glass doors lead to a garden filled with greenery.

Flushglaze Fixed Rooflight

A solar panel is installed on a rooftop, angled to capture sunlight, with a scenic view of hills and greenery in the background. The sky is clear and blue.

Visionvent Vent Only Rooflight

A modern sunroom featuring a sleek design with large skylights. Two sofas with white cushions and black decorative pillows are arranged around a round coffee table. The walls are a blend of dark materials, and there are potted plants and decorative elements enhancing the space. Natural light fills the room, creating a warm ambiance.

Sliding Over Roof Rooflight

A modern interior view featuring a skylight with rain droplets, framed by brick walls. The design contrasts the textured masonry with clean white surfaces and natural light.

Flushglaze Wall Abutted Rooflight

Aerial view of a modern house with a black metal roof, featuring large windows and a combination of stone and wood materials. The property includes a separate outbuilding, landscaped areas with gravel pathways, and subtle outdoor lighting. Surrounding greenery enhances the serene setting.

The Brief

The recently built front extension creates a new threshold for the church, encompassing a large fixed rooflight from Glazing Vision. The rooflight works to fill the entrance lobby with natural daylight and helps to create a lofty, open space with character.

Utilising frameless rooflights to accentuate this highly contemporary home, CDC Studio have adopted the perfect balance of imagination and persistence. Designed as a ‘forever home’ for their retired clients, this house is accessible, highly contemporary, low energy, sustainable and secure.

Having approached CDC Studio, to create a home which was not too big for two, but big enough to accommodate village parties and wider family coming to stay.

CDC Studio replicated the thatched barn and knitted into the local community, encapsulation the character of the village through local crafts and materials of flint, red brick, timber shutters and estate fencing complimenting this with the use of zinc to echo the agricultural aesthetic of the original land use.

A modern interior featuring a high, angular wooden ceiling and large windows overlooking a garden. A brick fireplace is positioned centrally with a wall-mounted TV above it. The flooring is concrete, and the overall design is sleek and contemporary.

The Solution

Adopting a thoroughly modern approach, the kitchen, dining and living spaces are open plan to allow for social gatherings and to provide a smooth flow throughout the home. With three Glazing Vision secure by design flat rooflights along the roofline, natural daylight is allowed to fill the property and create an open space for the homeowners to enjoy.

The kitchen sits under a column-free, steel rod hung mezzanine with acoustic damping which was rigorously engineered to avoid the reverberating noise. This creates a sense of enclosure to the kitchen whilst allowing CDC to achieve the fully flexible family / party space requested beyond.

Two Glazing Vision electric Visionvents have been included to deliver a continual air flow running through the property and providing a constant temperature and source of natural daylight into the entertainment area of the home.

A modern house exterior featuring a sleek, angular design with dark metal cladding and stone accents. The structure includes large glass windows, a sloping roof, and contrasting brickwork in the background. A landscaped area with gravel pathways and green grass is visible in the foreground.

To compliment the contemporary style of this house, a Glazing Vision Sliding over Roof rooflight has been installed, whereby the entire section of glazing retracts out onto the roof space, leaving open, unimpeded views of the sky above. When closed, the amount of glass is maximised to maintain an almost frameless appearance.

“CDC Studio have been specifying Glazing Vision for a number of years and our clients have always been very pleased with the results. A combination of standard products and the option to deliver a bespoke solution means that Glazing Vision cater for all types of projects and affordability whilst products are well made and come with the addition of guarantees.” Delphine Dryer, Associate Director CDC Studio.

A modern architectural structure featuring a combination of brick and metal exteriors, with distinctive angular roofs and large glass windows. The design showcases a blend of sharp lines and natural elements under a cloudy sky.

The character of the thatched barn is emphasised by embracing its full height to the ridge, offering modest but usable guest rooms wrapped in painted timber boarding. These were identified for immediate family use, the height helping to overcome their narrow nature on plan, integrated wardrobes, back panels and pegs for hanging make them hard working spaces. A separate master suite spreads into the new volumes providing dressing, bathroom and a private patio area which offers the clients a place for quiet retreat when guests are staying.

The house boasts its own private ‘Gin and Tonic’ balcony. The mezzanine space creates a private second sitting area with a concealed timber stair nestled between concrete sheer walls to provide access. It is quiet yet connected to the main space, and commands views to the west with a fully opening sliding over roof rooflight to let the outdoors in. A separate guest suite and shower room afford privacy to occupants and visitors alike.

Aerial view of a modern house with a thatched roof, surrounded by lush greenery and rural landscape. Nearby are traditional buildings and a small cluster of homes. Sunlight casts a warm glow over the scene.

The extended roofline and orientation provide solar shading to the solar controlled west facing glazing with the careful positioning of rooflights to prevent overheating in the height of summer, plus water runoff is directed to a salvaged historical water trough which the clients will use to water the garden. The linear design is extended into the immediate landscape with water rills extending out like fingers into the wider area which over time the clients will begin to accentuate with their planting.

This project showed the right combination of imagination and persistence, creating a home which not only fits in with the local village heritage but also manages to stand out and create a ‘wow factor’ for those which bask in its glory.

“We have recently been impressed with their ability to comply with the secure by design requirements which not all companies seem aware of. We have used the fixed and venting rooflights on our Stacked house and Y house and a massive bespoke sliding rooflight on our Parkhouse which the clients adore.” Delphine Dryer, Associate Director CDC Studio.