Giving more than taking: generosity and publicness at The BuStop House

The front door of this house originally sat directly beside a public bus stop on a busy Cambridgeshire high street. For many people, the lack of privacy, constant movement, and noise might be off-putting. For us, it became the starting point for a more thoughtful design solution.

Actually, this problem felt like an opportunity: to rethink how a home could relate to its surroundings, and how it might contribute to the public realm rather than retreat from it. Instead of shielding the house behind higher walls or hedges, we asked a series of questions. What if the noise from the street could be softened through natural materials? What if the entrance could shift, allowing space for a sheltered seat? What if a wall could provide privacy, deflect sound, and still offer something back that wasn’t just functional, but beautiful?

This thinking led to the defining gesture. We set the new front wall back to create a sheltered bus stop seat beneath the extended roofline. What was once an awkward threshold between public and private became a place to wait. But also something more: a place to pause on the way to the village shop, to rest, to exchange a few words with neighbours. It’s now used daily, quietly embedded into the life of the street. A small act, but one that reflects our larger belief: that our homes can participate in shared life, not isolate us from it.

Beyond this, the building embraces ornament and beauty, values often overlooked in contemporary housing. We believe art and architecture are inseparable in creating places people connect with. The outside walls combine double-layer cork insulation, with the outer dense layer precision-cut and inlaid with timber, alongside a carefully composed brick wall, designed with repeating geometric patterns. The patterns we used draw from sacred geometry and the principles of Platonic Solids; five unique three-dimensional shapes which are perfectly symmetrical. These shapes have been associated with art and decor in religious and spiritual contexts since ancient times, grounding the house in a deeper, balanced architectural language. Light and shadow animate the surface throughout the day, creating rhythm, depth, and a sense of life.

Material choice was fundamental. We selected cork, timber, brick, and copper for their tactile and enduring qualities as well as their environmental performance. The cork wraps the entire original house, improving thermal performance whilst allowing it to breathe and regulate humidity. It behaves almost like a living skin, shifting in tone with the weather. Bricks were salvaged from the original structure, reducing waste while maintaining a connection to the surrounding Cambridge context.

Craft sat at the heart of the process. Over two years, we designed and built the project ourselves from demolition and careful material salvage to constructing the extension and internal joinery. Every surface was considered – not just for performance, but for how it feels to live with. Even small gestures, like the inclusion of a bee brick, invite other forms of life to share the building.

There is an assumption that care, craft and detail are inherently expensive. In our case, we were able to undertake much of the work ourselves, which did reduce overall costs significantly. However, this process has shaped how we now approach practice. We see an opportunity to support our clients not only through design, but by guiding where they might take a more hands-on role, if they wish. Alongside, we develop detailed drawings, templates and strategies that enable builders and makers to deliver thoughtful design more efficiently. For us, it’s about balancing aspiration with resourcefulness – showing that meaningful, characterful spaces can be achieved without excessive cost.

The BuStop House is a project created and brought to life by two people who wanted to learn by doing, but it carries a clear intention that continues to guide our work. Architecture should serve more than itself, offering dignity, beauty, and generosity to everyday life – and in doing so, help shape places people feel proud of, and that they belong to.

Good design gives more than it takes.

Raveena Bhavsar is Co-Founder and Director of Conscious Design Studio