Country Houses Today

Meeting the new opportunities for rural living demands imaginative design, and many of the world′s most inventive architects are rising to this challenge. Among those featured in this book are well–known names like Kengo Kuma, Steven Holl, Lacaton Vassal, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Baumschlager + Eberle, Niall McLaughlin and Sean Godsell, as well as a host of talented architects from Russia to South Africa, Chile to China, New Zealand to the US.

What makes the demand for new and challenging architecture all the greater is the rapidly changing relationship between countryside and city, driven by social and technological development. In these circumstances, precedents from history and tradition are at best starting points: imagination, innovation and creativity are essential to do full justice to new challenges, expectations and opportunities. As urban life becomes increasingly rarified and stressful, so the contrast with raw nature assumes a different value to its status in past centuries, when architects generally sought to bring nature under human control. So this book divides houses into sections that reflect elemental qualities of landscape, forest, plain, ocean and mountain, as well as a section on houses that update the tradition of manipulating nature into telling a story.

Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

MOUNTAIN.

Flatz House by Baumshlager + Eberle.

Two Houses by Eduardo Souto de Moura.

Casa Cascara by Cazu Zegers Garcia and Juan Pablo Almarza.

Well Hall by Quinghyn Ma.

House in the Tian Shan Mountains by Audrey Matlock.

FOREST.

House outside Moscow by Tanya Kalinina of Macadam Architects.

Duckett House by John Pardey.

Forest Floor House by Kengo Kuma.

Mountain Tree House by Scogin Elam.

OCEAN.

House at Bay of Islands by Fearon Hay.

McNair House by Sean Godsell.

House on Corfu by Timothy Hatton Architects.

Writing with the Light House by Steven Holl.

Dirk Cove by Niall McLaughlin.

Beach House by Lacaton Vassal.

PLAIN.

House in Dorset by Nigel Anderson of Robert Adam Architects.

Slefinge Herrgård by Mikale Bergquist.

Du Plessis House by Marcio Kogan.

House Sue by Derick de Bruyn.

Siedlisko Farmhouse by Archistudio.

NARRATIVE.

Group of Houses by Leroy Street Studio.

New Hill by John Winter.

Old Wardour House by Eric Parry Architects.

Sphinx Hill by John Outram.

Lower Mill Estate by Richard Reid Architects and Others.

The Architects.

Further Reading.

Jeremy Melvin is a writer who specialises in architecture. He is a contributing editor to Architectural Design and has contributed to many international architectural publications. He studied Architecture and History of Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. He now teaches History of Architecture at South Bank University, London, and is a consultant on the Royal Academy of Arts architecture programme. He is also the author of FRS Yorke and the Evolution of English Modernism (Wiley–Academy, 2003).

"many interesting observations...any serious enthusiast for contemporary architecture will enjoy this book." ( Country Life, September 2006)

"A great read for anyone interested in the changing visual world around them." (Hampshire Society Magazine, September 2006)

"a book for anyone with an enthusiasm for country living and design" (Home Building and Renovating, December 2006)

"Whether you are looking for traditional or contemporary, refurbishments, conversions or houses built from scratch, this book explores them all, offering glossy photographs and drawings by the architects themselves." (Home Front, December 2006)

"Charting the most well–known faces in architecture this book looks at demands placed on architects in the modern world." (Period House, May 2007)