Devon Farmhouse property photos, Southwest England rural home design

Devon Farmhouse in South West England

17 February 2026

Architect: MortonScarr Architects

Location: Shaldon, Teignmouth, Devon, southwest England, UK

Photos: Richard Downer Photography

Devon Farmhouse in southwest England

Devon Estuary Home is a stunning residential property located in the picturesque village of Shaldon, Teignmouth, offering a unique blend of modern design and natural beauty. Completed in 2021, this two-level home features a beautifully designed stone clad courtyard, which serves as the central focal point of the property.

The courtyard is surrounded by a terraced garden with coastal planting and a glazed entrance set within a serene reflection pool, creating a sense of tranquility and calmness. A perpendicular first floor, clad in contrasting white fibre-cement panels, cantilevers over the glazed entrance and is sopported on a single yellow ‘Y’ shaped column that sits within the reflection pool.

The property’s design and layout perfectly enhance it’s picturesque environment, with internal views taking in the different characteristics of the site. With a project size of 290 sqm and situated on a spacious site of 3175 m2, Devon Estuary Home boasts a perfect blend of natural materials and contemporary architecture.

The courtyard and reflection pool create a sense of continuity between the indoor and outdoor spaces, adding to the property’s overall sense of sophistication and elegance. Located in the heart of Shaldon, the house is a true gem, offering a unique and peaceful living experience. The combination of modern design, natural materials, and stunning coastal location makes Devon Estuary Home an exemplary example of modern residential design.

What drove the unique design of the house?

The site presented a unique opportunity that as a practice, MortonScarr had not encountered before.

A previous owner of the site had gained planning permisison for a new home, but having constructed the foundations and below ground drainage, had unexpected suffered health issues with necessitated the sale of the site.

When our clients bought the site, our view was that the permitted design did not suit the immediate context – the layout of the house, arranged as a c-shape over 3 different changes in level, created an in-efficient plan containing long corridors and room layouts that did not make best use of the views, or create a sense of home. But the foundations had been built, and to ignore them – alongside the embodied energy contained in them – would have been irresponsible.

The site also presents a variety of contextual conditions – to the north is a tree-lined screen with the Teign Estuary beyond, to the east a church and graveyard, whilst to the south sit a terrace of houses, with an elevated view over the site.

MortonScarr developed different concept designs for how a new house could be built that used the existing foundations. The final result saw us create an L-shaped layout at ground floor that was designed as a stone walled courtyard garden, surrounding a shallow reflection pool. This presented a window-less facadeto the neighbouring properties, a design strategy which not only provided privacy (with all windows positioned on the north, east and west facades), but creating tension against the only glazed element of the facade, a full height glazed entrance porch, accessed via a decked walkway over the reflection pool.

The first floor of the building was designed as a contrast to the walled courtyard. Where the courtyard appeared as a dry-stone wall, the first floor was clad in a variety of textured white fibre cement panels. The form of the first floor was also consistant with this contrasting approach, designed as a purer white rectangle, orientated perpendicular to the courtyard, that cantilevers over the glazed entrance hall and which is supported on a yellow ‘Y’ column that sits within the reflection pool.

This layout design not only avoided reducing privacy to the internal rooms by having windows overlooking neighbours, but the perpendicular rotation also served to improved neighbours’ views towards the estuary.

How did MortonScarr Architects approach the design of the Devon Estuary Home to both complement and withstand its unique coastal environment in Shaldon? Could you elaborate on the inspiration behind the stone-clad courtyard and reflection pool, and how these elements contribute to the overall experience of the home?

MortonScarr has extensive experience of designing in coastal locations, and so great care was taken with the selection to materials to ensure that they were robust to suit a marine environment.

Whilst the house is constructed using a prefabricated timber frame, the building fabric feels solid. The design of the ground floor and surrounding tiered landscape as a walled garden led us towards a cast-stone cladding material which, whilst adhered to the timber frame, has the appearance of dry stone walling. In concert with this, large vertical corten panels are used on the north and east facades to provide a contrasting – but rustic – counter point to the cast stone.

The layout of the walled, courtyard garden was designed to provide shelter from rain and the prevailing winds.

The first floor is clad in a mixture of smooth and ribbed fibre cement panels, with accents in recesses provided by additional corten panels. All windows and doors use marine-grade powder coating to prevent degradation in a saline environment.

The description highlights a ‘stone clad courtyard with a glazed entrance set within a reflection pool.’ What was the vision behind these specific architectural choices, and how do they enhance the functionality, aesthetics, and connection to the surrounding landscape of the Devon Estuary Home?

The stone-clad courtyard was designed to heighten the feeling of privacy, there are no windows on the south elevation of the house, whilst the lightweight glazed entrance is overshadowed by the fibre cement clad first floor that cantilevers over it.

But the approach to the courtyard entrance sequence only works so successfully because of the layout of the house. The glazed entrance hall only contains one item – a suspended ‘corten’ clad staircase that ahngs from the first floor above – but this space leads directly into the main iopen plan living area. This space features large, sliding windows that overlook the northern garden as well as views through the adjacent open plan kitchen, and so sitting here provides the occupant with direct views to the south across the reflection pool and planted terraces, to the mature trees forming the northern boundary, and also across the garden to the west.

So whilst the house was designed for privacy, it is remarkable in it’s openness and visual connection with the surrounding site.

Devon Estuary Home in Shaldon, England – Property Information

Architect: MortonScarr Architects – https://mortonscarr.com/

Project size: 290 sqm
Site size: 3175 sqm
Completion date: 2021
Building levels: 2

Simon Bastone Associates, Go Green Engineering

Photographer: Richard Downer Photography

Devon Estuary Home, Shaldon, South West England images / information received 170226

Location: Shaldon, Devon, south west England, United Kingdom.

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photograph © Jack Hobhouse/Living Architecture
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