The Studio

The studio occupies the ground floor and extends into a rear addition we built from cast concrete and glass. The kiln sits against the granite rear wall in a purpose-built recess with a steel flue rising through the roof. Work surfaces run along two walls in honed concrete, and a long drying shelf in pine spans the full width of the addition. Overhead, a north-facing rooflight delivers the flat, consistent light that ceramics work requires throughout the day.

The Living Space

On the first floor, the domestic rooms are quiet and deliberately undemonstrative. A single open space holds living and dining, its granite walls left exposed and oiled. The Slab Bench runs beneath the window, doubling as a seat and a surface for displaying work. Joinery is in waxed oak. The floor is reclaimed Porto granite cobblestone, ground smooth and sealed. There is very little here that is not structural or made by the client’s own hand.

The Terrace and Garden

A terrace at the top of the house connects the main bedroom to the garden below via an external stair in weathered Corten steel. We planted the garden with Portuguese species — rosemary, fig, a bay hedge along the boundary wall — so it feels as though it has always been there. The terrace floor is a single pour of fair-faced concrete, sealed and slightly textured for grip. A clay pot, one of the client’s early studio pieces, holds water near the door.