Framing the View: Three Oriel Windows, Three Unique Expressions
There’s something special about an oriel window. Projecting confidently from the façade, it creates a feature both inside and out, connecting the home to its landscape while carving out a unique, light-filled space within.
We’ve recently incorporated bespoke oriel windows into three very different projects, each sitting within a different price bracket and context. From a Grade II listed renovation in the South Downs to a historic cottage reimagined and a contemporary coastal retrofit in Cornwall, each oriel offers its own character and spatial experience.
While all three create a dramatic framing of the view, their depth, materiality and detailing vary, offering something slightly different in each setting.
Black Tile House
Our most premium example can be found at Black Tile House in Firle, nestled within the South Downs National Park.
This Grade II listed home underwent a meticulous restoration, alongside the addition of a contemporary flint extension. Within this new extension, the oriel window projects generously into the garden, with a notably deeper reveal than our other projects. This increased depth allows for a substantial internal window seat, creating a place not just to pause, but to inhabit.
The sleek flat roof, large sliding doors and rooflights draw daylight deep into the plan, while the oriel offers a more intimate, framed perspective of the landscape. Crafted with beautifully detailed knapped flint corners, the contemporary addition stands confidently beside the historic building, clearly modern, yet materially sympathetic.
Here, the oriel becomes both architectural statement and everyday retreat.
Black Tile House: www.hapa-architects.co.uk/portfolio/black-tile-house/
Old Rectory Cottage
At Old Rectory Cottage, our approach focused on revitalising the historic core while resolving years of piecemeal extensions that had disrupted circulation and flow.
The ground floor was reimagined to create distinct focal points and stronger connections between spaces. A new sunroom addition features a cantilevered oriel window, complete with an oak-clad window seat. Bathed in natural light, it forms an inviting reading nook, projecting outward while remaining visually anchored to the garden beyond.
This A-rated home combines heritage sensitivity with contemporary performance. High levels of insulation, passive solar principles, underfloor heating powered by an air source heat pump, and a 10kWp PV array all contribute to a low-energy dwelling.
Externally, larch timber cladding contrasts beautifully with dark slate at first floor level, while the oriel subtly punctuates the façade, offering depth, rhythm and a carefully framed outlook across the South Downs.
Old Rectory Cottage: www.hapa-architects.co.uk/portfolio/old-rectory-cottage/
Trenans, St Agnes, Cornwall
In Cornwall, at our Trenans project in St Agnes, the brief was transformation. What was once a modest bungalow has been reconfigured and extended into a bright, energy-efficient family home.
Here, the feature window takes a slightly different form. While more modest in budget, it remains powerful in effect. The reconfigured open-plan kitchen and living space centres around a large picture window that frames the garden and floods the interior with natural light. Bifold doors extend this connection further, dissolving the boundary between inside and out.
Clad in black timber, the rear extension has a crisp contemporary identity, while the existing house has been externally insulated and re-rendered to dramatically improve thermal performance. A new air source heat pump ensures low-carbon heating throughout.
Though different in scale and cost, this project demonstrates that carefully considered glazing and projection can still create a strong architectural moment, anchoring the living space around light and landscape.
Trenans, St Agnes: www.hapa-architects.co.uk/uncategorized/before-after-trenans-transformation-in-st-agnes-cornwall/
One Typology, Three Interpretations
From the deeper, more immersive window seat at Black Tile House, to the cantilevered oak-lined nook at Old Rectory Cottage, and the light-filled picture window in Cornwall, each project shows how an oriel or feature window can:
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Create a distinctive architectural focal point
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Strengthen the connection to landscape
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Shape intimate internal moments within larger spaces
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Dramatically frame and embrace the view
Regardless of budget, a thoughtfully designed projecting window has the power to transform how a space feels, offering both prospect and refuge in equal measure.
If you’d like to explore how an oriel window could enhance your own project, we’d love to talk: info@hapa-architects.co.uk
