An extraordinary house in the Chilterns designed by Richard Parr to meet a challenging brief
‘No family is “normal” or ordinary,’ says Richard Parr. ‘Everybody has their preferences and their peculiarities, and that makes the sort of work we do really interesting. Our job as architects is to make the complex problems in the way people live disappear.’ The needs this house was designed to fulfil were more complex than most. The owners wanted it to function both as a safe space for their severely autistic son, and as a place of retreat and restoration for the family at large. ‘It’s the biggest challenge with design: how do you cater to everybody’s various needs and still make it look harmonious?’ says Richard.
His clients, whom he knew well from his work on their London house, had bought a plot in the Chilterns. They had chosen it for its practical advantages, but it was otherwise unappealing – a brownfield site that had been intended by its previous owner to become an entire housing development. ‘They called me apologetically, saying, “You’re going to think we’re mad – it’s such a boring site,”’ recalls Richard. However, he was immediately seduced by the expansive views. ‘The first thing Richard said on arriving when we got out of the car was, “Look at that sky.” His enthusiasm made us enthusiastic – he brought the fairy dust,’ says the owner.
The design took shape over a series of discussions. ‘My conversations about the brief tend to have three parts,’ explains Richard. ‘First, what are the emotions the clients want to experience in the house?’ The couple explained this was largely about finding a feeling of security – for both themselves and their son. ‘When you have such a vulnerable family member, knowing that they are safe is a primary requirement for us to relax ourselves,’ says the husband.
This naturally led on to practical requirements. In this case, the son and his carers needed their own separate zone, without being cut off from the life of the house. ‘And then we come to the ethical brief,’ continues Richard. ‘What are the values we want to bring to the project? That’s where we deal with sustainability, energy efficiency and situating the house in the local environment. My clients were passionate about all of those elements.’
The resulting house is profoundly satisfying as it has been tailored to fulfil the family’s needs, with no superfluous space. Its four separate zones joined by a central spine means it can be opened up and shut down according to who is there. ‘It’s not a big house,’ says Richard. ‘But it offers a hell of a lot.’ One zone contains the kitchen and sitting area; the second holds the main bedroom; and in a third is a pair of spare rooms ideal for guests. The fourth is a self-contained apartment for the son and his carers, carefully designed to suit him, and easy to close off or open up as needed.
Richard is well known for his ability to root new buildings through employing a rural vernacular (his work on The Newt in Somerset being the most notable example) and, here, local farm buildings informed his choice of structures and materials. ‘The local vernacular is simple, with some red brick, some black-painted timber cladding, concrete on the floor and then crinkly tin roofs. You also get barns with hit-and-miss bricks, where you have holes in the bricks to allow ventilation. So we used those ideas to create what feels like two lean-to sheds off the central space.’
The scale of the house is clever. No room feels larger than it has to be, but there is a sense of generosity at the same time because the central space is taller than the eaves line, which creates a pleasing airiness. Each of the other rooms has a ceiling that pitches down towards the windows, so they have a more domestic feel. The windows are expansive enough to immerse the occupants in the views over the countryside, without being dauntingly vast. ‘I always avoid huge sheets of glass because they might be nice at certain times, but then at night or during darker times of the year, you’re just looking out into blackness,’ observes Richard.
Positioned in the middle of its plot, the house is secluded from the road while being deeply connected to the landscape. The central area – a games room where everyone can gather – has windows at each end, so you can see all the way from the front of the house to the fields that stretch out at the back, and from the back of the house to the ridge of hills on the horizon at the front. The house was intended to be about ‘reach and extension’, as Richard puts it. ‘Even though the field has hedges and boundaries, the sensation when you’re in the house is that you own about 20 miles’ worth of views, as there is nothing else in sight.’
The surrounding land gives the owners plenty of opportunity to enjoy activities that they find restorative. Taking pleasure in the landscape was another key part of the emotional brief that they discussed at the start. ‘The way we retreat is to be busy on the land,’ the wife explains. Richard worked with her on the garden, to create the illusion that the house’s hard surfaces melt into the landscape. ‘The house sits on a concrete plinth, almost like a farmyard,’ he says. ‘Around it, we used concrete pig slats with slots into which you can put plants.’ Here, the owners have made a small but beautiful, naturalistic garden and, beyond the plinth, there is a meadow broken by undulating paths and mounds from which the views can be best appreciated.
The site also has room for outbuildings, where the husband can store and work on his beloved bicycles, and in which an energy centre is housed, processing the output of the ground- and air-source heat pumps and the solar panels. The plot also contains a small productive garden, a heavenly natural swimming pond and a swale to capture the surface water from the site. ‘We worried it might be a bit unattractive, but it has become one of the most beautiful aspects of the place – it encourages biodiversity and there are even moor hens nesting there now,’ says the wife.
The project has brought the owners and also Richard a great deal of satisfaction. ‘It’s such a beautifully realised piece of architecture,’ says the husband. ‘We positively notice and enjoy it all the time.’ For Richard, that is the simplest measure of success: ‘You just want people to be happy in their houses, don’t you? I know that houses are built for all kinds of reasons. Often, it is for ostentatious purposes and to impress other people, but here it’s all about the enjoyment’
Richard Parr Associates: richardparr.com
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Paul Massey2/8White walls and a pale ceiling of textured wood-wool boards showcase a ‘William’ sofa from Zanotta and Marcel Breuer’s classic ‘Wassily’ armchair.
Paul Massey3/8In this covered space, the ‘Brooklyn Dome’ pewter and copper pendants from Industville echo the structure’s
charred timber panelling. The combination of brick walls and corrugated roofing has been chosen as a subtle nod to the region’s semi-industrial past.
Paul Massey4/8This natural pool by Ellicar is filtered by reeds and populated by water lilies and Pontederia cordata.
Paul Massey5/8A felt and wool rug by Julia Mottram, whose work has featured at Richard Parr’s London gallery Brink, supplies textural interest to the neutral floor and walls. The black-stained ash and copper cabinetry is by RPA and the ‘Palissade’ outdoor furniture is from Hay.
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