This replacement house sits within an existing walled enclosure near to the centre of Leamington Spa and extends to approximately 0.1 Hectare. The site lies 130m from the banks of the River Leam across a water meadow, and sits within Flood Zone 3. It lies in a conservation area. To the south lies housing, to the west a single dwelling, and to the north and east the meadows.
The brief was to create a 3 bedroomed house that was entirely contemporary yet would sit well in the white Regency houses nearby – and be flood proof.
Williamson House
The house is single-storey but elevated on brick piers in two distinct wings arranged in an ‘L-shaped’ plan that occupies the north-east corner of the site of the previous house and consists of two distinct wings linked by an entrance hall – a glazed ‘gasket’ sitting at the top of a straight-flight staircase (provision for a future lift here is allowed for).
The first wing contains the living spaces set beneath a raftered, mono-pitched roof that over sails to the south sheltering a balcony and rises up to high clerestorey windows capturing the tree canopies to the north. The frontage is fully glazed and shaded onto the south-facing garden. The second wing set at right angles, contains a tv room and three bedrooms and bathrooms which look out through trees to the rising sun across the water meadow.
The house is clad in an off-white timber stain that echoes the local Regency vernacular, perched above brick piers that echo the enclosing garden walls.
The south facing garden is centred on a new outdoor pool and kitchen area – to recall the sunny days of the owners spent as a child in Brisbane – and this is nestled into landscape architect Nick Dexter’s combination of wildflower and productive garden planting.
The house and pool are powered by air source heat pumps.
| Status | Completed (2024) |
| Contract value | £1250000 |
| GIA m2 | 240 m2 |
| Structural engineer | HRW Engineers |
| Landscape architect | nd Studio |
| Ecology | Ridgeway Ecology |
| Contractor | JG Molloy |
| Arboriculturalist | Adrian Hope Tree Services |
| Project Team | Tom Hayes |
| Photography | © Richard Chivers |
RIBA West Midlands 2025 Shortlist
"We were apprehensive when we first got in touch with John Pardey. Our estate agent told us about John. She knew that he was an expert in building houses on floodplains. That's what we wanted to do. We had, in fact, come across John's houses online and seen a house that he had built up on stilts. We loved the style of house but would someone with John's reputation want to get involved with our project? We needn't have worried, John was fantastic from the very start.Andy & Esther Williamson
John came to visit us in Leamington, we met him at the station and we walked through the park to our site. He talked us through what his practice did and how the process of building a house through JPA worked, he listened as we told him what we wanted to do. We went to our existing house and we explained how we used it, what worked and what didn't. He found out what we wanted, and needed from the new house by exploring how we liked to spend our time individually and as a family of four.
A few days later John presented a sketch of what he had in mind, it looked perfect - beautifully designed but functional. John had boundless enthusiasm for the project which added to our confidence in him and our enjoyment of the design process.
The planning application was extremely impressive and included input from a number of professional services that JPA recommended. There were renders too which showed the proposed house in the environment from multiple views, they were so realistic you could believe that the house had already been built and they were simply photographs. We are amazed how much our real house is like these original renders.
At the planning stage we were assigned one of John's colleagues – Tom was to guide us through the day to day process of getting the house built. The first steps in that were to appoint a contractor. Having managed each stage of our project and liaised with us and our main contractor on site every month during the build, JPA helped us complete the project by managing the snagging phase.
We can't say how highly we regard John Pardey and his company. They are highly professional combining style, function, attention to detail, friendliness and enthusiasm into their work. JPA are an exceptional company producing beautiful houses."
