a glass-and-stone house on the water at Lilliput

Completed this year on a south-facing plot where the land falls gently to the water of Poole Harbour, the house is a study in two materials held in tension. Bands of Purbeck stone, quarried a few miles down the coast, anchor the ground floor and the boundary walls; above and around them, full-height glazing opens the living spaces to the channel and the low green line of Brownsea Island beyond. The architecture is restrained rather than showy — flat roofs, deep reveals, a palette of stone, oak and bronze-anodised aluminium — and it reads differently through the day as the harbour light moves across it.

Inside, the principal floor is arranged as a single connected volume: a kitchen finished in pale oak and honed stone, a dining area, and a sitting room that steps down towards the glass. Sliding panels retract fully so that the terrace and the interior become one in summer. The five bedrooms occupy the upper floor and a quieter garden wing, each with its own bathroom; the main suite has a private balcony facing the water and a dressing room lined in the same oak that runs throughout. A media room, a study and a utility core complete the accommodation, and an integral garage sits behind the stone screen at street level.

What sets the house apart is its relationship with the harbour itself. The garden runs down to a private slipway and a deep-water pontoon with mooring for a sizeable craft, so a boat can be brought to the door and taken out on the tide without leaving the plot. Lilliput's village shops and the sailing clubs at Salterns are a short walk along the shore, with Sandbanks and the chain ferry to Studland a little further south.