Orchard View is a new detached dwelling built on a quarter acre plot in the Cotswold town of Chipping Campden. The site was once a kitchen garden but had become derelict and overgrown. Numerous planning applications for above ground dwellings were refused by the Local Authority, and latterly at Appeal. In early 2015, planning permission was granted for a subterranean house on the site. Our client purchased the site with this permission intact. Hayward Smart Architects were appointed to reimagine what they had assessed as an uneconomic and poorly functioning design. Their brief was for a modern, natural light filled home that would be well insulated and designed for low energy use. The plan was re-orientated so that habitable accommodation was arranged around a south facing courtyard. Traditional roofing slate and Cotswold stone walls are used alongside contemporary detailing with exposed steel structure and dark zinc cladding. The restrained palette of materials both externally and internally, along with the exploitation of natural light results in a calm, quiet sanctuary at the below ground level. With only the entrance structure and frameless glass balustrading to the roof edge visible from the street level, passers-by do not have a true sense of what lies beneath.