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Winner of 'The Sunday Times Best Country House since
the War' Award 1989
The house is located on a magnificent site. It crowns the
end of a ridge along which it is approached from the north.
To the south the land falls away to a lake, on the west is
the Victorian gothic orangery that is all that was remaining
of the original house, and to the east another grassy ridge
runs out into the deer park: 1200 head of deer, of species
from several nations, roam semi-wild in an intensified
natural ecology.
To command and lock into this stupendous setting in a manner
fitting for a country house, the design spreads wings in the
traditional H configuration. Extended wings create an entry
court on the north and a sunny terrace on the south outside
the main living rooms. These, like the terrace, enjoy a view
down to the lake and obliquely to the old orangery on one
side. This now houses conservatories on either side of a
large outdoor room. But the most powerful connection to the
conservatiories is the enfilade through them and
across the dining and drawing rooms and library and out
along the grassy ridge. In contrast, a minor axis connects
the work rooms of kitchen and study on either side of the
hall. This more private axis also gives access to service
areas and guest rooms.
The plan sits on a square paved and gridded base whose
diagonals cross in the centre of the living room-this is
both a vestigial 'stylobate' and the tartan grid of modular
Modernism. At the crossings of the grid are the columns, and
where there is no column its absence is still marked on the
floor. The column width, which at 3ft is the same as that of
a door, is the basic modular measure of the grid.
The house was built for an industrialist- it has a steel
frame, sheeted roofing, and makes extensive use of precast
concrete, but it is finished in much richer materials and to
far superior standards than usual. The exterior is clad in
contrasting bands, or 'strata' of materials. At the base is
an exposed pebble aggregate. Above this is a band that is
acid-eteched to reveal a crushed limestone aggregate, and
then most of the column is clad in "Blitzcrete®". Above,
capitals of black concrete with black marble aggregate
laquered to make them look permanently wet, fuse the cube
with the sphere. Cast through them are holes that are
sometimes overflows for the rainwater gutters and at other
times house floodlights. Similar capitals cap chineys to
fireplaces and flues.
Between the capitals is a cornice beam of green concrete
incised with sloping grooves. Below this, walls are faced in
travertine interupted by strata of red brick. Floors inside
and out are paved in different colours of travertine, whilst
outside grid lines are picked out in dark engineering
bricks.
The polychromy of colours are a direct response to the
english landscape of saturated greens and dense colours that
glow in our cool, dim light with its shafts of brilliant
sunlight.
The entrance hall, described in Country Life (17/7/86) as
"surely one of the most succesful new rooms in Britain" is
oval in form. Its walls are finished in polished stucco,
with bands of burr elm veneer edged with aluminium. Its
floor is travertine with in laid 'giant compass dials' made
from marble elements reflecting the numbers of days in the
year, the months in the year and the hours in the day. The
doors are of avodiré wood covered in a trellis work
created from different stained sycamore veneers: each door
contains some 2,500 pieces.
Of the interiors, the Architectural Review (June 86)
wrote:
"The interior will ravish any but the most reductive
Modernist. It feels open, light and airy and only the
richness of the colours and materials prevents the
magnificent views from dominating the attention and
eclipsing the interior. Detail and construction are
immaculate, and colours, from the pink and yellow plywood
ceilings, to the pinks, greens and greys of the walls, and
the other shades and patterns of cabinet work, flooring and
tiles are all precisely judged to be rich, lively and
harmonious.
Though such a strong architectural frame is necessary to
stand up to the setting, and the views it offers inside, it
might be expected to dominate any but the most monument and
robustly pompous furniture. This has not proved true. It is
furnished mainly in the light and elegant pieces - many by
Josef Frank - that the clients previously owned. After
skilful arrangement the effect is of a flattering symbiosis
between house and furnishing. But then a house like this is
the joint creation of architect and discerning and
determined client. Part of the triumph here is that the
result seems an exact reflection of the tastes and concerns
of both parties."
Cost £200 /sq.m.
1978 - 1986
Credits
Client: A wealthy industrialist.
Architects: John Outram Associates
Structural Engineer: Portland AssociatesMechanical and
Electrical Engineer: Denis Johnson
Cost Consultant: Gardiner & Theobald
Landscape design Consultants: Anthony Du Gard Pasley
Main Contractors: Deacon (Contractors) Ltd
Click here for links
to related sites
* JOA can be reached by E-Mail at anthony@johnoutram.com
, by telephone on +44 (0)207 262 4862 or by fax on +44
(0)207 706 3804. We also have an ISDN number : +44 (0)207
262 6294.
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