Purbeck Cottage
Located in a small hamlet along Dorset's Jurassic Coast, architecture studio TYPE has completed the retrofit of two derelict 19th-century quarryman's cottages into a single, 85 square metre low-carbon retreat.
The project was shaped by the clients’ philosophy of radical reuse. Rejecting the brand new or pristine, the couple wanted a weathered aesthetic, celebrating the character and history found in time-worn materials. To achieve this specific brief, TYPE’s design approach focused on introducing as little new material as possible, retaining and reusing everything within the cottages first, and sourcing anything beyond that from reclamation yards and salvage dealers.
The charm of Purbeck Cottage lies in its adept appropriation of what already existed. The clients, drawn to the quiet story of patina and texture, wanted to honour the craft and legacy of the original buildings and the local Purbeck limestone quarries. The original dwellings were treated as a library of materials, guided by a philosophy of radical reuse and restraint, making a persuasive case study in how resourceful thinking can deliver meaningful environmental and aesthetic impact.
Merging the two cottages into a single home required strategic spatial reconfiguration. A double-height volume had already been introduced by a previous owner, departing from the traditionally low-ceilinged rooms of the original structure. This significant alteration to the historic plan presented an opportunity to make further spatial changes without disturbing an otherwise intact arrangement. The architects reconfigured this volume to the centre of the plan, anchoring the social heart of the home, a bright, open-plan living and dining space, subtly zoned by the shift in volume above. The exposed stone walls and floors of this central space further defined the interior aesthetic throughout Purbeck Cottage.
On the first floor, TYPE designed the two sleeping areas at either end of the home, separated by the double-height living area, each with their own dedicated staircases.
To the west, the principal bedroom complete with an inward facing juliet-style balcony and ensuite sits above the kitchen, utility and service rooms. Across the central void at the other end of the house, a mezzanine-style gallery forms a gently secluded writers room that doubles up as a guest bedroom room. A large internal opening with bifold doors offers flexible connection to the rest of the house, allowing for a quiet space for concentrated writing and a private room for any guests that come to stay.
On the ground floor the kitchen is situated off from the living area on the ground floor with a restored butlers window carved into the original partition wall of the cottages, establishing visual connection through the narrow plan.
To keep the principal spaces open and adaptable within the restricted footprint, TYPE created a new service core, pushing the bathrooms, boiler tank, utility and storage to the home’s perimeter.
Stripping the cottages back to their structural shell revealed dressed stone walls and floors hand-crafted by local quarrymen over a century ago. Rather than returning the building to a pristine museum-state, Purbeck Cottage embraces the pattern of conversion and change, with every layer of intervention viewed as part of its story rather than something to be corrected. Original stone floors that were uncovered beneath a layer of carpet and concrete screed. While heavily scarred in areas by jackhammer marks from modern interventions, the clients chose to keep the battered surface as a record of the building's history.
The strip-out brought similar discoveries in the walls, where historic brick infills were found within the dressed stonework around the chimney and hearth. These too have been left exposed, adding texture and depth to a deliberately collaged material palette.
Guided by circular principles, every material removed was evaluated for salvage, repair or adaptation, a labour-intensive process that required patience and detail-focused workmanship. Old floor joists, too structurally insufficient to be reinstated, were denailed by hand, cut to size, regraded and reused as studwork for the new service core. Similarly, deteriorated floorboards were repurposed as ceiling cladding.
Both staircases are original to the cottages, reclaimed and reconfigured with much of the stair boarding salvaged. The balustrades and handrails are among the few new elements in the home, hand-forged from raw steel by a local blacksmith, which sit peaceably alongside the reclaimed fabric of the building.
Two batches of salvaged timber cladding, carrying traces of their original red and green paint, were allocated carefully across rooms and elevations, as wall panelling, doors and shelving. TYPE adapted their plans as the project progressed, figuring out how to ensure absolutely nothing was wasted, this including repurposing leftover offcuts as additional cladding for the kitchen shelves.
Where materials couldn't be sourced from within, TYPE turned to specialist reclamation yards, local suppliers and eBay. Vintage brassware, taps, sanitaryware, cast-iron radiators, a salvaged French stove, even the ironmongery have all been brought back into use. All lighting is reclaimed, complete with a candle chandelier operated by a traditional winch and pulley system. Even the stone sinks were carved from leftover fragments at a nearby Purbeck quarry.
No extensions were added and the external envelope remains largely intact, avoiding the substantial embodied carbon associated with demolition and new construction. Openings were sensitively adjusted to improve daylight and passive solar gain, while services were integrated discreetly, preserving the cottages’ original character.
The energy strategy was guided by the same pragmatism applied throughout the project, targeting the largest efficiency gains with the least new material and intervention. Wood-fibre insulation was introduced to the roof, and an insulative lime-based plaster applied to the walls in place of cement render, allowing the stone structure to breathe while improving thermal performance. The former fossil-fuel heating system was replaced by an air-source heat pump and solar panels, and the deteriorated sash windows were swapped for high-performance timber casements.
Purbeck Cottage could not have been designed from scratch, it is a home where every surface, fixture and fitting carries a story of reuse, craft and collaboration. Yet TYPE’s approach was not a straightforward conservation. By treating the existing cottages as a resource rather than an obstacle, TYPE has been bold in making something genuinely new from old fabric, collaging retained and reclaimed materials into a cohesive home that embraces a circular material culture. The result is a building with a character inseparable from the patience and craftsmanship that shaped it.
