A grand country home for a developer client. Here is a selection of our architecture and interior design. If you want a closer look at the images, please click them to enlarge!

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The client owned a large plot of land that was surrounded by mature trees, and a large difference in level, of almost three metres from the north west to the south east part of the site. Our parti sketch proposed that the new home be arranged in a ‘z’ form, to provide an entrance courtyard and a private, south facing courtyard. A key element of our approach was to bury part of the accommodation into the slope so that the main house would read as two storey plus roof accommodation from the street.

 

Sections of the house were: an area set aside for private family use, another for hosting parties and soirees, another for family and guest bedrooms and another for the master bedroom suite. The client regularly hosted parties for between 100 and 200 guests but was also very private and wanted the family accommodation to reflect this. Setting the private accommodation at the lowest level provided a natural separation.

Discussions about materials and form were held from the very outset. The client wanted to use white limestone imported from Malta for use in an overtly structural and solid fashion. The design drew upon mansion architecture throughout the county and combined it with modern materials, such as the zinc roofing and bronzed aluminium doors and windows.

 

The interior design approach was one that we defined as ‘quietly elegant’ and responded to the client’s desire to provide a formal hosting area at ground floor, with reproductions of period cornice, picture rail, skirting, architraves and panelled doors and a more ascetic private area at lower ground, exhibiting a pared-down minimalism and utilising materials such as marble for the floor, that are more often seen in the client’s native country making it more homely.

 

The private courtyard, complete with pool is overlooked by a ground floor terrace provided as break-out space from the entertaining rooms. The floor of the reflecting pool can raise or lower, to provide reflecting or swimming pools as required and in response to the seasons.

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