Jamie’s Farm Cabins

Jamie’s Farm is a charity which works to transform the lives of vulnerable children who are at risk of academic or social exclusion.

They offer residential stays on a working farm, where visiting young people are involved in all elements of running the farm. This helps build their self-esteem, their ability to take on new challenges, engagement in school and provides a significant boost to their mental wellbeing.

To help in underwriting the shortfall between the money raised by charitable donations and the contribution made by participating schools, we were appointed to design two new lettable cabins, King Offa’s Cabin and Queen Cynethryth’s Cabin, at Jamie’s Farm Monmouth. If this pilot is successful, cabins could soon be rolled out to the other farms.

The two cabins are positioned at slightly different levels to each other, relating to the contours of the hillside in their respective locations. The elliptical plans make the relationship of the cabin to the site more natural then a more conventional, rectangular form, whilst the unusual, attractive form avoids the sense of domestication of the rural landscape.

Within each 30m2 cabin is a modest kitchenette and shower room space which provide adequate facilities for short-term holiday breaks.

The living space contains large areas of slot style glazing which concentrated towards a primary view of Sugar Loaf and downstream of the Wye Valley, whilst more modest windows serve the bedroom and shower room spaces, which face up the valley.

Green roofs reduce the perceived mass of the buildings, allowing for low roof heights, whilst charcoal-finished vertical timber cladding creates the appearance of a crafted carpentry object within the landscape, and evoke the sense of having been formed from the trees of the nearby woodland.

With heating and hotwater generated by an ASHP, the cabins utilise low carbon and natural building materials throughout, with homegrown timber used for the structural systems and sheep’s wool insulation within the floor, walls and roof.

The cabins are available for short term rent through airbnb - please click the buttons below to book.