Bumpers Oast represents a 21st century riff on a local vernacular derived from the houses used to dry hops as part of the beer brewing process. Four shingle-clad towers rise up from the natural surroundings, creating an extremely low-energy home with a bold contemporary aesthetic. This property has been created for a family that moved to Kent 10 years ago and almost bought an oast house at that time.

In order to make the house suitable for modern family life, ACME had to break some of the usual rules of oast house construction.

Typically the towers would be built in a cluster, without any gaps in between. Ludewig’s team realised they needed to introduce gaps to integrate the living spaces with the surrounding garden.

In particular, the design of the roundels meant that the Kent-style tiles used to create the exterior skin were a huge technical challenge. Every tile above eaves level had to be individually cut, with over 40,000 used across the whole facade.