‘Living Architecture‘ is a new not-for-profit organisation set up to revolutionise both architecture and the UK holiday rental business.
Five holiday homes by architects Peter Zumthor, MVRDV, NORD Architecture, Hopkins Architects and Jarmund/Vigsnæs Architects are nearing completion in England as part of the project initiated by writer Alain de Botton.
Designed to shake up both house-building and the holiday rentals industry in the UK, ‘Living Architecture’ plans to build one house per year after the completion of the first five buildings.
‘Living Architecture’ offers you a chance to rent houses for a holiday designed by some of the most talented architects at work today, and set in some of the most stunning locations in Britain.
We are dedicated to introducing you to the best of contemporary architecture, as well as to curating unique and enjoyable holidays, starting at just £20 per person per night.’
‘Living Architecture’ won first prize in the Leisure category of the Condé Nast Traveller Innovation and Design Awards 2010.
‘The Balancing Barn’ by MVRDV:
An incredible feat of engineering where 50 per cent of the barn hangs in free space, with glass walls and flooring giving uninterrupted views over woods, ponds and meadows.
Designed by the Dutch firm MVRDV, who are celebrated for the playfulness and comfort of their designs, The Balancing Barn takes its shape and inspiration from neighbouring local barns as well as the ‘hanging houses’ in Amsterdam. It is sited 3 miles from the ancient village of Walberswick on the Suffolk Heritage Coast.
From the road, the house appears to be a traditional domestic dwelling with a chimney and a pitched roof. However, in an effort to overturn the cliché of a holiday home, the whole building is in fact 30 metres long and dramatically cantilevers over a dip in the ground to the rear, thrusting the barn into the surrounding landscape and providing wide views from its huge panoramic windows.
By concealing the long sides of the barn with trees and covering the exterior in reflective steel tiles, the house changes throughout the year, taking on the different hues of the seasons.
The barn thus becomes part of this stunning Suffolk nature reserve, celebrating the local landscape.
Inside the house is a kitchen, dining area and a series of four double bedrooms, each with separate bathrooms. In the very centre of the barn lies a hidden staircase with access to the garden beneath. All rooms have full height sliding windows, roof lights and a glass floor.
The walls and floor coverings are decorated with paintings by Constable and Gainsborough, both Suffolk artists, that have been sampled and manipulated by celebrated Dutch design Jurgen Bey. Bey has also made some bespoke items of furniture for the house, and has put together a collection of beautiful chairs, tables, sofas and lamps by leading contemporary Dutch designers.
‘The Shingle House’ by NORD Architecture:
Situated on Britain’s only desert, the house relates both to the geography of Dungeness and the changing environmental conditions of the site throughout the seasons.
The Shingle House is a simple, monumental, black house, finished on the exterior in the traditional tarred shingles and boards of the local vernacular, and in a beautiful palette of concrete and timber within. It is adjacent to the late artist Derek Jarman’s house on what is otherwise a vast beach, empty save for a random collection of fisherman’s, two lighthouses, the terminus of a miniature coastal steam train and in the far distance, the dramatic form of a nuclear power station. The entire beach is classified as a nature reserve and is filled with unusual flora and a plethora of birdlife.
NORD director Alan Pert says: “Many of the ideas for The Shingle House originated from the experience of Dungeness, not through just one visit, but over a period of time. It’s a place you would never get bored with. Dungeness is very different through its seasons…and there’s an opportunity to play on that.”
Elements of the landscape have filtered into the space, such as the Purpleheart timber flooring that takes inspiration from the Viper’s Bugloss whose violet blue flower carpets the area in summer. The Shingle House combines elements of the fisherman’s cottage design with references to the train carriages of the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch miniature railway that passes by the house. A picture window in the house’s mezzanine offers fantastic views across the shingle landscape.
The house has its own private bath house where visitors can soak in a black polished concrete sunken bath, whilst looking out over the landscape. NORD has created a home that can be opened up and exposed to the local elements and views, or closed to its surroundings on cold winter nights with the aid of sturdy shutters. It is a sturdy and comforting space.
Inside, three double bedrooms are situated on the ground floor, as well as a living room with a large concrete fireplace. There is a further double bedroom on the first floor. Beyond the bath house is the kitchen and dining area. From the dining table, a large wall of glass can be opened, and in the kitchen a second wall of glazing opens on to a hidden and sheltered courtyard area.
‘The Dune House’ by Jarmund/Vigsnæs Architects (JVA):
A building with a complex roofscape geometry, that references local seaside buildings, while remaining distinctively contemporary.
The Dune House is a stunning reinvention and reinterpretation of the English seaside dwelling. Designed by a Norwegian practice celebrated for their creative responses to the highly seasonal Nordic landscape, The Dune House will be JVA’s first UK building. It is located on the southern edge of the village of Thorpeness, on the Suffolk coast.
“For us the most interesting tension was to create something that would not only fit in with the local landscape and ‘society’, but would also be refreshingly new”, says director Hakon Vigsnaes. “The gabled roof is particularly ‘English’ – not something you would find in Norway – so we wanted to make a feature of that.”
The roof, clad in a lightly tinted orange steel alloy, reflects the changing colours of the sea and sky and the panoramic windows on the ground floor offer views of the sea, whilst giving the sense of the house being nestled in the dunes. JVA wanted to create more than just a space for sleeping upstairs, so each of the four double bedrooms has a bathtub in it, with windows carefully positioned so that one can lie in warm water and take in views of the North Sea and surrounding meadows. Separate shower and toilet facilities are attached to each room and there is a small library and roof terrace on this floor.
The ground floor, with its living area, kitchen, terrace and further en-suite bedroom, is at once open to the landscape and protect from it by being set into the dunes. Sliding doors can be opened on the ground floor to give 360 degree views, a move which emphasizes the floating appearance of the upper floor.
While the materials of the ground floor (concrete, glass and aluminium) root the building with a reassuring sense of heaviness, the upper floor (made of timber planks) gives a nautical feel that echoes the gables and seaside huts of the area.
‘The Long House’ by Hopkins Architects:
A house singularly responsive to local materials and vernacular forms and inspired by the best lessons of Modernism.
“People find modern spaces very exciting and I thought what could be better for a holiday house than an exciting space?” – Patty Hopkins
On the edge of the quiet village of Cockthorpe in Norfolk, lies The Long House, created by two of the great modernists of British architecture, Sir Michael and Lady Patty Hopkins. They describe their creation thus: “The design of the Long House is inspired by the classic characteristics of the simple, yet grand scale, flint walled barns and churches of North Norfolk. We hope to achieve a house that is of its region, in terms of form and materials, built to the best sustainable practice, with an enduring quality that is also, unmistakeably, of its own time.”
The Long House gives out onto the flat, almost prairie-like expanses of the Norfolk landscape. From the upper level there are generous views over the saltmarshes and creeks of the North Sea coast. The house is distinctive for its massive and traditionally crafted flint wall, which references the ancient churches and barns of the area. A great medieval-style hall runs right through the middle of the house, which is capped with a vast timber roof, reinforced with steel cabling and trusses. A two-way fireplace in the living area allows one to see through to the adjoining room.
Michael and Patty Hopkins identified closely with the project’s aspiration: to enable the public to experience ‘living, eating and sleeping’ in a modern, thoughtfully designed environment, as opposed to the transient activity of passing through exciting new airports or visiting a sleek museum. Having always lived and worked in buildings of their own design, they are strong advocates of the experience.
‘The Secular Retreat’ by Peter Zumthor:
A space dedicated to calm, reflection and perspective, The Secular Retreat is a veritable haven from the pressures of modern life.
In South Devon, between the resorts of Salcombe and Hallsands, lies a landscape of rolling hills, wooded river valleys, patchwork fields and small stone villages. It is here that Zumthor is designing his first project in the UK – The Secular Retreat, a hill-top retreat, where people will be able to go for periods of sustained work and reflection.
The design makes use of an original rammed concrete that gives the building a mass and scale characteristic of a timeless example of ecclesiastical architecture.
Peter Zumthor says “The Living Architecture concept appealed to me right away. When Mark Robinson showed me the site in Chivelstone, Devon, I fell in love with the place. It felt like a unique opportunity to create a work of architecture, merging and growing out of the landscape. So now, two years later, I hope our design feels British, does have the ‘smell’ of the area, somehow, and will become part of the local chemistry of things. Visitors to the house should feel that they never want to leave, or at least want to return again and again.”
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