Wraxall Yard | Clementine Blakemore Architects

Wraxall Yard involved the sensitive restoration of a series of derelict agricultural buildings into inclusive holiday accommodation, a community space, workshop and smallholding. The site forms part of a 250-acre organic farm within the West Dorset AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), and the renovation is part of a visionary project by the owners to improve the biodiversity of the landscape, as well as provide universal access to it.

The completed buildings are available to rent either as five individual holiday lets, or as a whole site, which includes use of the community space. Since it opened as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company

in July 2022, roughly 60% of the bookings have been families with a disabled member. In partnership with local charity Green Island Trust, they are regularly used to provide supported holidays to local people living with a disability. The wider site is used for a volunteer scheme run by the Dorset AONB, which is focused on get young people with mental health and/or addiction issues engaged in the countryside.

In these ways, the restoration of the buildings has been a catalyst for a series of holistic social and environmental endeavours aiming to improve people’s quality of life and the natural world. 

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“The principle established with the client from the outset was to transform the dilapidated site into a beautiful and peaceful place for people with disabilities, who are invariably short-changed in the environments they are provided. The setting, character and materials of the original buildings offered a rich and inspiring starting point for the design, which was defined by a series of simple moves to open up the site, upgrade the fabric and create a tranquil environment from which to explore the surrounding landscape.”

-       Clementine Blakemore

Photography

Lorenzo Zandri - https://lorenzozandri.com/

Emma Lewis - https://www.emmalewis.xyz/