Inside a gravity-defying riverfront home in Wales

Ty Hedfan translates to ‘Hovering House’ in Welsh and is an apt description for the dramatic cantilever home by Featherstone Young that hangs above the River Ysgir in Wales.

The award-winning four-bedroom Welsh property is five miles from Brecon in Pontfaen, Powys, and the incredible Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park, famed for its mountain ranges and for being the best place to star-gaze in southern Britain.

Architects Sarah Featherstone and Jeremy Young (who we recently profiled in our How I Work series) conceived Ty Hedfan’s as a way to engage and live with the landscape. The 2,400 sq ft house is made from locally sourced materials such as slate, wood and stone and is divided into two wings: the first includes a double-height, glass-enclosed living room that floats over the river at canopy level, offering forest views with the added comfort of a log burning fireplace.

The cantilever wing houses the free-flowing kitchen and dining room, as well as the primary bedroom and bathrooms, arranged around an elevated courtyard, with the property’s two riverside decks acting as outdoor living rooms in the warmer months.

If the first wing is airy and open, the second wing engages more intimately with the earth, submerged in the ground and covered by a green roof. Its bedrooms are cocooned and private – a total contrast to the rest of the house.

The Powys property has won several architecture awards and was shortlisted for the prestigious Manser Medal in 2011. It’s been available for rent as a holiday home (see our feature on Modernist Escapes), but Ty Hedfan is now for sale via The Modern House for £1.1m.

See inside.