FOUR MARKS

The site in Four Marks, Hampshire, is surrounded by protected trees whose Root Protection Zones cover almost the entire site and dictated both the design form and construction of the foundations of the houses. The gently sloping site coupled with a piled foundation system allowed the suspended ground floor slabs to be lifted out of the ground both preventing damage to the roots and ensuring their access to groundwater. The effect is to give the appearance of the houses floating out over the site as the ground falls away. The mixture of large, open-plan spaces and cantilever sections of the building provided its own engineering challenges as we worked to meet architectural aspirations while minimizing costs.