How this Arts and Crafts-inspired contemporary home in Farnham, Surrey, supports its owners’ health and wellbeing
The house is in a period garden suburb of Farnham, Surrey. Edward Lutyens’ first project, the 1897 Arts and Crafts Munstead Wood, is not too far away. The proximity prompted Niall Maxwell, head of Rural Office for Architecture, to look to the principles of the William Morris-associated movement. He also referenced the county’s vernacular housing, resulting in space that, while completely new, looks right at home among its neighbours. Note the steeply pitched tiled roof, severe gables and sheer white rendering. But this is no imitation game. Arts and Crafts gets a 21st-century update at Farnham House, as it’s known, with its block-like dormers jutting from the roofline. Meanwhile, a sculptural arched window at ground level is a curvy contrast to the straight lines seen elsewhere.
Inside, communal spaces flow into each other from a central triple-height hall, creating connected spaces for cooking, dining and living. It’s all tied together with a tactile, restrained material palette that would have made Morris happy: bespoke carpentry that includes beautiful lattice work, and simple clay tiles – a contemporary realisation of the movement’s proclivity towards understated, everyday materials and dismissal of overly ornate decoration.
Just like Lutyens’ Munstead Wood, which was designed for horticulturalist Gertrude Jekyll – whose work has arguably outshone the architect’s over time – an emphasis was put on the external space in the design. A mature laurel hedge cocoons the site from its surroundings and creates a ‘wall’ for the garden. Internal spaces exploit the privacy, with floor-to-ceiling glazing used throughout the ground floor, feeding light and establishing relationships between the indoors and out.
For its owners, Ben and Claire, the house has come to represent the end of a long journey in which they each experienced challenges to their health. Now that it’s finished, they reflect on the positive, uplifting qualities that have come about from taking their time and deciding to build a house specifically for them and their family’s needs. Watch the film now, and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to never miss a new one.
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