Jane Ramsay and Neil Manfield’s self-built home is a love letter to a happy childhood in west Wales.

TEXT Alexandra Pratt IMAGES Martin Gardner

Perched on a cliff above the west Wales coast, Jane and Neil’s self-built home is all about the importance of place, family memories and environmentally conscious design. “I’ve been coming here ever since I can remember, says Jane, a GP. “My father is retirement age, and we wanted to do a project together.”

Initially, Jane began the search with the idea of buying a seaside cottage. Ten years later, Jane is the proud owner of an extraordinary three-bedroom home that is cantilevered off the clifftop, with views to the horizon. During this long journey, Jane also met her partner, Neil, and the couple have welcomed three children, all of whom have now also grown up in what they call ‘home by the beach’.

Jane didn’t plan it this way, of course. “I was looking for a seaside cottage, then randomly, I saw the old ice cream parlour we used to visit as kids. It had been split into two flats. I initially thought to renovate, but my architect suggested we flatten it and start again.”

Jane worked with Welsh architectural practice Hyde + Hyde, which she found via an online search. “I looked for contemporary architects, and I was taken by their designs. They’re so talented,” recalls Jane. “I said, ‘Let’s go for something really contemporary.’ This home is unique, it’s energy efficient, and it is sensitive to the environment.”

Setting drove the design. Located on a small inlet on the Ceredigion coast, the house is designed around the extraordinary views, creating an immersive experience that is equally respectful of the natural environment. A reverse level layout gives the living spaces and the master bedroom the best views, with a deep axis in the floor plan that allows the sun to penetrate the heart of the house. 

Working within the footprint of the original building, a cantilevered section on the first floor adds more space. Here, huge four metre sliding glazed doors create the ultimate connection to the surrounding seascape.

“It was such a clever use of space, and it connects us to the ocean. It’s like reaching out to sea,” says Jane. “It’s spectacular in a storm; it’s my favourite place to sit.” 

Getting the construction right was key to this ambitious design. The ground floor is built in concrete, with a lighter-weight, timber-framed glulam structure at the first-floor level.

Responding to the cliffside location, Hyde + Hyde opted for an innovative concrete substructure that enables the home to be built on cantilevered concrete foundations. This specially designed structure provides resilience by anchoring the home to the most stable, inland part of the site. This has secured the structure for the long-term, while allowing Jane and Neil to embrace their much-loved views.

“Of course, we thought about erosion,” says Jane. “But we had lots of surveys and investigations of the granite below. It won’t be going anywhere. Plus, there’s no erosion on our inlet. It seems precarious, but we did our homework!”

Getting such an innovative house built was Jane’s biggest challenge. “Planning permission was straightforward, thanks to our architect’s diligence,” recalls Jane. “And we met with the community council.”

The real stumbling block was finding a team willing and able to build the house. Jane initially hired a firm based a couple of hours’ drive away, but by the time they had constructed the shell, their commitment was waning, and Jane parted ways with them.

By this time, however, she had already met Neil through a mutual friend. Although Neil isn’t a builder – he owns a stove fitting company – the couple decided he would project manage the rest of the build, using sub-contractors, as and when the family could afford it. “Neil felt he could do a good job,” says Jane. “We’d already been let down by a building firm; our fingers had been burnt.”

Although the instigator and driving force behind the project, Jane wasn’t hands-on, as she kept busy with her work in medicine and with the arrival of their three children. It was a busy time for a growing family. “Neil was blood, sweat and tears; he broke his wrist,” recalls Jane. “I was having babies and meeting architects.”

The house was constructed with concrete at ground level. This was essential for strength and durability, but the upper floor uses a highly insulated timber structure made from glulam beams that helps even out the home’s overall carbon footprint. This upper level is wrapped in low-maintenance, sustainable fibre-cement tiles. These are a practical and cost-effective alternative to slate. 

Designed to perform in tough coastal conditions, the tiles form a protective screen that stands up to driving rain and strong winds, and they will age gracefully over time. They also reconcile this strong contemporary style with the slate and white-rendered buildings common to the local area.

Beyond its outer skin, the house was designed with a clear focus on comfort and practicality. The structure and insulation work together to keep the temperature inside stable throughout the year, and reduce the need for mechanical heating and cooling. Fresh air can move easily through the home, with openable windows and an open plan layout that allows warm air to rise through the double-height entryway and escape at a high level. This natural flow of air helps the house stay comfortable even during warmer months, while timber slats along the stairwell provide shade and privacy without blocking daylight.

As the home’s setting demands several huge sections of glazing, the architects were careful to balance the benefits of passive solar gain (being warmed by the sun) with the risk of overheating. Luckily, most of the views lie to the north, which meant minimal openings on the south-facing wall made visual, as well as technical, sense.

“Hyde + Hyde designed such clever positioning of the glazing for solar gain,” says Jane. “We have such big banks of glass on both levels that it had to be double-glazed. The units would have been too heavy for triple-glazing.”

Supporting this design is a carefully considered approach to construction. Particular care was taken to avoid cold spots, with insulation fitted neatly around windows and details designed to keep heat in and moisture out. Where possible, Jane opted for standard and readily available components. This helped to cut down on waste and will make future repairs simpler, as well as keep that budget under control.

This low-key approach to sustainability was fundamental to the design from the beginning, with the fabric-first approach prioritising insulation, natural ventilation and waste-efficiency doing most of the heavy lifting. Beyond that, Jane chose an air source heat pump, which runs the underfloor heating and the radiators. “We have very little heat required, even in winter,” says Jane.

The sustainability of a build isn’t just the house itself, of course, and the plan for this project included preserving the landscaping and especially the trees around the perimeter of the site. Within that, further ‘soft landscaping’ of local, ‘hardy’ plants ensures biodiversity for animals and an attractive garden for Jane and Neil’s family. Discreet bat boxes complete a picture of sensitivity and environmental responsibility. Sustainability was never treated as an add-on, but as something that naturally supports comfort, longevity and ease of living. 

Inside, the spaces are designed to slow life down. The layout encourages time together, but also offers moments of retreat. Large windows draw the outside in, so the changing light, weather, and movement of the sea become part of everyday life. 

Jane’s interiors make their home feel both self-assured and welcoming. While the outside is defined by concrete and fibre cement, the interiors soften the contemporary styling with plenty of timber, black resin flooring and carefully crafted joinery. 

“We were a bit taken aback by the idea of black interiors, but it frames the view perfectly,” says Jane, who took design advice from her architect and also from a neighbour, who works in the design industry. “The background just fades away.” The black resin floor adds to that sense of calm and comfort. “It feels really nice underfoot, almost like a cushion,” she laughs, “but it’s a nightmare to clean. It shows every mark, especially sand!”

The concrete on the ground floor was treated as a finish in its own right, and a specialist concrete artist was brought in to refine the surfaces. Using a simple but effective technique with a ping pong ball, he carefully smoothed the tie-holes, giving the walls a softer, more considered feel. 

Jane herself designed the chic, minimalist kitchen with the help of Hyde + Hyde. It is deliberately low-key, tucked behind matt plywood and Furbo panels, so it blends into the space rather than dominating it. “When you are in the space, you don’t want to be looking at the kitchen,” says Jane.

Elsewhere, bespoke joinery by AdHoc Designs in Cardiff, as well as Hyde Object adds to the sense of calm. In the bedrooms and especially above the fireplace, bespoke carpentry hides the television, keeping the focus firmly on the architecture and the views.

Jane’s long connection to this stretch of coast is woven into every aspect of the design. Rather than compete with the landscape, the house responds to it. Solid and protective at ground level, lighter and more open above, it mirrors the experience of being on the edge of the land. Concrete provides strength and shelter, while timber introduces warmth and a sense of calm. Together, they create a home that feels confident and contemporary, yet entirely at ease in its setting.

This home represents far more than the end of a long building project. It is the result of years of thinking, remembering, and slowly shaping an idea. The house brings together family, place and a shared desire to create something that would last. It reflects where they have come from, how they live now and what they value most. Most importantly, the house works as a family home – and future retirement home for Jane’s father. A place where new memories are being made. Creating that before even the couple’s children arrived (now aged eight, six and four) was an extraordinary act of faith. 

Yet for Jane, it is the quiet moments that ‘make’ the building. “What I love most is sitting in the cantilever and watching nature. I could sit and watch the waves against the rocks for hours. You see dolphins, birds of prey… It’s all about nature and tranquillity.”

This house on the edge is not just a self-build success story. It is a reminder of how powerful a sense of place can be, and how thoughtful design can deepen our connection to the landscapes we love.