BUILDINGS IN THE LANDSCAPE pdf

LANDMARK HOUSES 2 Landmark Houses pl.qxd 27/6/05 12:06 pm Page 2 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com LOWER MILL ESTATE2 2 Landmark Houses pl.qxd 27/6/05 12:06 pm Page 3 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com LOWER MILL ESTATE 3 “ ” CONTENTS Buildings in the landscape 4 - 5 The vision 6 - 7 The projects 8 - 23 Alsop + Partners 8 - 9 Alison Brooks Architects 10 - 11 Featherstone Associates 12 - 13 Piers Gough, CZWG Architects 14 - 15 Eva Jiricna Architects 16 - 17 Roger Sherman Architecture 18 - 19 Sutherland Hussey Architects 20 - 21 Richard Reid and Associates 22 - 23 Landmark House Landscape 24 - 25 Interiors 26 - 27 Biographies 28 - 31 Wildlife at the Lower Mill Estate 32 - 33 Twenty two of the World’s best architects working alongside one another to design forty six individual Landmark homes on my Estate in Gloucestershire is not only unique but an honour for me and fulfils a lifelong ambition to wake up the architecture of this country and create a development in the Cotswolds countryside that stands alone on a global scale for its design and ecological excellence. The way that the designers have responded to the environment is, in my opinion, pure creative genius. It is so inspirational to see and work alongside such talent. Every one of the designs will be such cool spaces to live in. People can talk about this now, and that is great, but it is what they say in two or three hundred years that will be the real test. Jeremy Paxton, sponsor of Landmark Houses and owner of Lower Mill Estate LANDMARK HOUSES LOWER MILL ESTATE 3 2 Landmark Houses pl.qxd 27/6/05 12:06 pm Page 4 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com LOWER MILL ESTATE4 2 Landmark Houses pl.qxd 27/6/05 12:06 pm Page 5 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com BUILDINGS IN THE LANDSCAPE When I saw the plans, my immediate impression was unbelievable. I thought this can’t be The Cotswolds. It must be California or Switzerland or anywhere else on the globe where good, modern architecture seems to happen naturally. But I was wrong. It is believable and it’s really happening in Gloucestershire. Masterpiece architecture is exciting enough wherever it is built, but there’s something extraordinary here. We are in the deeply conservative English countryside. For too long the culture of the country has been sentimental and backward-looking: quite literally afraid to change. But culture is about growth and evolution.These new houses have been sensitively integrated into the landscape.They are uncompromisingly modern, but respectful too. Happily, they prove the countryside is alive: they are not yesterday’s tradition, but tomorrow’s. It’s significant that not too far from Lower Mill is Poundbury, Prince Charles’ own experiment in building an ideal community. The Prince’s sentiments are admirable, but the architecture is lazy and intellectually sentimental.Why does Prince Charles want eighteenth century architecture, but not eighteenth century sewers? There is a house in Poundbury where a central heating flue exits through a gargoyle! Instead of Poundbury’s lifeless, artless pastiche, Landmark Houses offer vitality, variety and ingenuity.They show more intelligent respect for their environment than a bad copy of a jobbing Georgian builder’s original. Of course, we want to keep the best of the countryside. But never forget: if you want things to stay the same, they are going to have to change. Poundbury apes a past that never really existed. Landmark Houses offer a taste of the future now. Stephen Bayley These new houses have been sensitively integrated into the landscape.They are uncompromisingly modern, but respectful too. “ ” LOWER MILL ESTATE 5 2 Landmark Houses pl.qxd 27/6/05 12:07 pm Page 6 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com THE VISION LOWER MILL ESTATE6 5325_16pp_Landmark.qxd 27/6/05 12:11 pm Page 1 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com The 'Landmark Houses' programme is envisioned specifically for the site at Lower Mill Estate, in the Cotswold Water Park, where we have invited a number of architects, such as Will Alsop, Eva Jiricna, Sutherland Hussey, Richard Meier and Partners, Roger Sherman, Sarah Featherstone, Alison Brooks, Piers Gough, Greg Lynn, etc. - an older generation at the peak of their inventiveness, but still in wonder at the world out there, and a younger generation in the process of re-invention as they gather a second breath - and asked each one to speculate on the architectural poetics and ecological considerations for the design of a 'landmark house' within such a context. More by luck than judgement, we've started off with eight architects and eight designs, as did the celebrated 'Case Study Houses' programme of Southern California.This programme, initiated by John Estenza, a champion of Modernism and editor of the avant-garde monthly magazine, Arts and Architecture, started off in January 1945 when he commissioned eight nationally known architects, each to design their own answer to create a house "to fulfil the specification of a special living problem in the Southern California area". In addition there was a requirement that each house designed "must be capable of duplication and in no sense be an individual performance". They had no clients - the clients came later when construction began. They started off with eight architects and eight designs and finished, in 1966, with a total of 36 individual houses by 20 practices, including the iconic Stahl House (1959-60) by Piers Koenig, perched miraculously on the hills above West Hollywood and Charles and Ray Eames' own house in Pacific Palisades (1945-49) - one of the great influences on English architecture from the mid 1960's. But the Case Study Houses were spread over a wide area of southern California from the north west of Santa Monica to the south east of Pasadena, whilst the 'Landmark Houses' here are located entirely in one 550 acre site in the Cotswold Water Park. In addition, unlike the 'Case Study Houses', the 'Landmark Houses' programme is concerned with the design of one-off houses, that act architecturally as 'focal points' within the simpler building vernacular of the development. If anything, these buildings are an 'individual performance' and bring to mind the recent architectural development of Venice California. Founded by Abbot Kinney of the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company in 1905, the six miles of canals and intersecting streets and single storey timber frame houses aligned along tree lined canal banks, were part of his programme for a wider cultural renaissance. The community, characterised by a high degree of individuality which determines its openness, was the place where the Beat poets later hung out and where, in more recent years, the young avant-garde architects of LA, including Frank Gehry, began to cut their teeth on a series of adventurous house designs. HOW AND WHY WE HAVE PULLED SUCH TALENT TOGETHER Down at Lower Mill, there was already a 'landmark building', in the form of the existing listed Mill. Right from the start it was clear that in order to avoid the proposed plan looking like the archetypal housing estate, some house designs would have to take on a similar role to that of the Mill building.The converted Howell's Barn was already just such a 'landmark house', whilst Somerford Villa, which stands in the water at the edge of a narrow peninsular jutting out into Somerford Lagoon, was the first of the new houses to be designed specifically as a 'landmark house' for one of our clients. These houses are the equivalent, architecturally, of what the limestone mansion or vicarage was in relation to the houses of the vernacular tradition. For the 'Landmark House' programme, we have 22 architects and a total of 48 'landmark houses' to design. Unlike the other house types with their pitch, monopitch and mansarded roofs, and similar building genre, the 'landmark houses' will generally be more distinct architecturally - sometimes with a flat roof or with a roof terrace, more elaborate use of decking, sometimes of a 'grander scale' but all with a greater concern for spatial and sculptural elaboration and poetical sensibilities, etc. The standard types we have provided for Lower Mill Estate are our 'vernacular' or 'common' buildings for the site and, as such, have a shared building language - the codes, or rules, if you like. Such building is definable and specifiable. 'Architecture', by its very nature, is more allusive. For the architecture of the 'landmark houses', what rules there are, are those to be provided by each individual architect. But it is the building, or vernacular of the development, at Lower Mill, that provides the 'framework' or setting for the 'architecture' and, in a sense, makes the 'architecture' possible. LOWER MILL ESTATE 7 Richard Reid 5325_16pp_Landmark.qxd 27/6/05 12:12 pm Page 2 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com ALSOP + PARTNERS, LANDMARK HOUSE LOWER MILL ESTATE8 5325_16pp_Landmark.qxd 27/6/05 12:12 pm Page 3 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com ALSOP + PARTNERS, LANDMARK HOUSE LOWER MILL ESTATE 9 5325_16pp_Landmark.qxd 27/6/05 12:12 pm Page 4 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com ALISON BROOKS ARCHITECTS, HIDE HOUSE LOWER MILL ESTATE10 5325_16pp_Landmark.qxd 27/6/05 12:12 pm Page 5 Simpo PDF Merge and Split Unregistered Version - http://www.simpopdf.com [...]... establish the practice Sutherland Hussey Architects in Edinburgh Much of the practice’s understanding of architecture and construction has been gained in their work on historic and listed buildings, both in London and across the country.They have worked on buildings spanning a wide range of styles and periods including the Georgian Group’s headquarters in a Grade 1 Robert Adam building, to the internationalstyle... Wigglesworth is principal of Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, member of the RIBA, she was awarded an MBE in 2003 .The practice is interested in making sustainable communities that involve buildings employing the inventive use of readily-available materials We have become known for our highly sensuous and spatially-exciting buildings. The best known demonstration of this approach is the award-winning Straw Bale... the suburban Drop House, the practice see the private house as a test bed for creative innovation Underpinning the practice's work is a desire to make the creation of architecture enjoyable and to open up the unexpected Where possible this includes encouraging public participation in the evolution of projects.This inclusive working ethic combined with teaching, assessing and lecturing are part of the. .. Awards, whilst Wakelins was short listed for the Manser award in 2004 Completed projects to date include private residences (The Barnhouse, Highgate was awarded the AJ First Building Award at the 2002 Stirling prize ceremony), an Art Gallery in Inverness and Lynher Dairy, Cornwall (also being awarded an RIBA award and the Civic Trust Special Award in the ‘rural buildings category in 2003).They have also... projects include the extension of the historic Landesmuseum,Trier, a project won in a national architect competition (1997); the housing project Olbeschhof (1995) and the rowing club along the river at Trier built in timber construction (2001) The practice has received several awards, including one for outstanding buildings (1986) Architecture and City Planning (1995); the BDA Architecture Prize for the. .. Science, Will then spent five years farming in Eastern Europe and at one time lived on an island in the Danube Delta where he was involved in regenerating sustainable agriculture When time allows he travels extensively to further his interests in conservation and land management Will has a particular interest in land use and the interaction between people and the natural environment around them Over the past... overall desire to involve people in the design of their environments They have designed and participated in exhibitions and events ranging from work with the Hayward Gallery to the Architecture Foundation This refreshing approach has been reflected in the growing number of projects completed FREISING & FREISING, Gerhardt Freising studied at Stuttgart University and then worked for Ernst Gisel in Zurich Later... of housing projects in London on sensitive infill sites, mainly in the Westminster planning area He won the competition for a coffee shop at the Tate Gallery and subsequently designed the restaurant In 1983 he was successful, in association with BDP, in an international selection process for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Jeremy Dixon has exhibited at the 1981 Venice Biennale, taught at the Architectural... degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984 Became a licensed architect in the U.S in 1989 Has been practicing in China since 1992 and established Atelier Feichang Jianzhu (FCJZ) in 1993 He is the Principal Architect of Atelier FCJZ as well as the Head and Professor of the Peking University Graduate Center of Architecture He has won a number of prizes, such as First Place in the Shinkenchiku... species such as the stunning bee orchid and little ringed plover Part of the reason behind the diverse and abundant wildlife is the range of habitats including open water, rivers, woodland, unimproved grassland, gardens and meadowland among others The other underlying factor is the fact that, where necessary, these habitats are being managed specifically for the wildlife reliant on them and that makes . with the design of one-off houses, that act architecturally as 'focal points' within the simpler building vernacular of the development. If anything, these buildings are an 'individual performance'. and bring to mind the recent architectural development of Venice California. Founded by Abbot Kinney of the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company in 1905, the six miles of canals and intersecting streets and. and evolution.These new houses have been sensitively integrated into the landscape. They are uncompromisingly modern, but respectful too. Happily, they prove the countryside is alive: they are not