Hasta La Ideas

Following our interview with Ström Architects about the value of photo-realistic visualisations, the firm sent us a set of images by rendering guru Peter Guthrie showing a house proposed for Suffolk, England (+ slideshow).

Two miles from the coast in the southern English county of Suffolk, the 2.5 hectare site is located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and surrounded by farmland.

British studio Ström Architects designed the house to be built over foundations of a previous structure that burnt down, beside an existing outdoor pool.

It will be orientated at an angle to the ruins, to make a clear distinction between the two and to face the best views.

“The building is set like this so that it can be read on its own and thus touch the existing site lightly,” said the architects.

Flooding is prevalent in the area so the home will be raised 1.5 metres off the ground, with a ramped walkway following the geometry of the old building connecting it to the garden.

The design is long and thin to reference the local vernacular, with glazing along most of the west elevation. Dark wood panels will cover rest of this facade, while Corten steel is to clad the other three sides.

All the rooms are on the ground floor apart from the master bedroom and bathroom, which will fit into the small volume on the roof. Construction is due to start later this year.

The renderings were produced by visualisation artists Peter Guthrie, who is considered one of the leading exponents of photo-realistic architectural imagery. Guthrie is the mentor of UK architect Henry Goss, whose renderings of a proposed house in southern England stunned Dezeen readers earlier this month. Read our interview with Goss.

Check out Goss’s renderings of another English house by Ström Architects and read the interview in which the studio claims that investing in quality computer generated imagery (CGI) is “more effective than advertising”.

We recently published an archive of all the most convincing renders on Dezeen, which includes CGIs of a Norwegian hunting lodge, the new National Gallery of Greenland and Renzo Piano’s The Shard in London.

See more hyper-realistic renderings »
See more buildings in Suffolk »
See more architecture and design in England »

More information from Ström Architects follows.

Private House, Suffolk, UK

The site is located in Suffolk two miles inland the coast, and lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site itself forms part of an overall land ownership of 2.5 hectares surrounded by agricultural land.

The current site has foundations, ruins and some low walls from a house that burned down eight years ago; there is also an existing outdoor pool. Immediately to the west of the pool and ruins, there is a small area of open grass that runs up to the edge of a beautiful copse of mature oak trees. The site is located on the edge of flood zone two and three, and requires a raised floor level 1.5 metres above the old cottage.

The clients’ brief was for a country house – ‘a dream in a wood’, a peaceful place to relax, regenerate, and think of new ideas. The existing site with the pool, ruins and low walls has a very strong presence, and we wanted to keep this as an important part of the site. The design is linear and has picked up on the building form – the ‘long cottage’ found in the locality, and we see the design as an evolution of the longitudinal cottage.

The building sits above the ruins and the edge of the pool, as to respect the current site, but also to deal with the raised floor level that is required, due to the potential flood risk. The building is also set like this so that it can be read on its own, and thus touch the existing site lightly. The building is orientated towards the west-south-west, and sits on an angle above the existing ruins facing the best views as well as creating a clear juxtaposition of geometry to the ruins.

A two-storey element punctures through the roof, and contains a master bedroom suite at the first floor. This is positioned towards the existing coach house, thus minimising the impact of the building on the more open site to the south. This two storey element is recessed from both the west and east facades as to reduce the scale and the appearance of the building.

The building is entered via a bridge that spans from higher ground and above the ruins. This sets up the whole philosophy of the house, even before you actually enter, as well as successfully dealing with safe egress form the house to higher land in case of a flood.

The post Private House in Suffolk
by Ström Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This house in rural England was designed by British architect Lucy Marston to reference old English farmhouses and features red brickwork, a steep gabled profile and a corner chimney (+ slideshow).

Located in the county of Suffolk, Long Farm is a three-storey family residence clad in a mixture of regional materials that includes terracotta roof tiles, lime mortar and timber details.

“We wanted to make a building that belonged on the site,” says Lucy Marston. “Familiar building elements and materials were carefully composed to create a house that is clearly of its time, but with an identity firmly routed in its locale. It was intended to be immediately recognisable as a Suffolk house that feels at home on the farm.”

Skylights are lined up along both sides of the roof, while large windows cover all four elevations, allowing light to filter into the house at different times of day.

A similar materials palette continues through the interior. Martson explains: “Whitewashed brickwork, painted timber linings and exposed ceiling beams were used to give honest depth, texture and character to a modern interior.”

The client works as a writer and requested quiet spaces for working as well as larger areas for entertaining guests or spending time as a family.

Marston thus added a a series of rooms on the ground floor that can be opened out to create a large living room or subdivided to create a “snug”, a reading room and a playroom for the children. There’s also a study across the corridor.

A large kitchen is located at the opposite end of this floor and features a dining table that can seat up to ten people, as well as a traditional farmhouse sink and a double stove.

Four bedrooms occupy the first floor and include two master bedrooms with private bathrooms, plus a pair of children’s rooms that can be combined to form one large room.

“The clients wanted to build a simple, modest building that would adapt to accommodate them as the family developed,” says the architect.

Other rural English houses featured on Dezeen include a converted stable block in Hampshire and a stone house on the Isle of Man. See more houses in the UK.

Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.

Here’s the full project description from Lucy Marston:

Long Farm, Suffolk

Long Farm is a new family home in rural Suffolk, England. The house sits high among a group of existing farm buildings, facing east across salt marshes and open fields, towards the sea.

We wanted to make a building that ‘belonged’ on the site and so the design emerged from its context. The steeply pitched roof and linear form were influenced by the traditional ‘long house’ form that can be seen throughout that part of the country.

Familiar building elements and materials – a corner chimney, brick and lime mortar, teracotta tiles and timber – were carefully composed to create a house that is clearly of its time, but with an identity firmly routed in its locale. It was intended to be immediately recognisable as a Suffolk house that feels at home on the farm.

Capturing the unique views around the house, in all directions was key. From the dawn in the east over the sea to sunset over the reed beds to the far west, windows and rooflights were placed precisely to track the sun and and views throughout the course of the day. Windows were kept large to frame dramatic views, but balanced with the occupants’ domestic desire for enclosure, privacy and warmth.

Internally, the vernacular references continue: a super-sized inglenook in the sitting room, a generous hall and landing that almost become rooms, window sills deep enough to sit in and a ‘farmhouse kitchen’ arranged around a large family table. Whitewashed brickwork, painted timber linings and exposed ceiling beams were used to give honest depth, texture and character to a modern interior.

The house was designed to accommodate a family of four with guests, with room for different age groups to carry out activities in different parts of the house.

As a writer with young children, the client had conflicting requirements, requiring solitude in order to work and also sociable interlinked spaces for the everyday bustle of sociable family life and frequent visitors.

The plan, an update of the traditional single room depth long house layout, was developed as a series of smaller rooms with their own identities (a playroom, a reading room, a snug).

These can be closed off and used separately with access via the hall or opened up with sliding doors to create a more fluid semi-open plan space. Likewise the childrens’ bedrooms can be opened up to form one big room or closed off for privacy.

The clients wanted to build a simple, modest building that would adapt to accommodate them as the family developed. They also wanted a building that would weather well, would require little or no maintenance and minimal energy to run.

At Long Farm, we aimed to make a building that was not only robust and flexible enough to age well over time, but one that aimed to be sustainable long term in an aesthetic sense, that had a timeless or ‘classic’ quality to it.

Landscape Consultant: Marie Clarke, Clarke Associates
Structural Engineer: David Cantrill, JP Chick and Partners
Contractor: Robert Norman Construction

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Lucy Marston appeared first on Dezeen.

London architects Haworth Tompkins have inserted a Corten steel artist’s studio into a ruined Victorian dovecote in Suffolk, UK. (more…)