The best examples of rural contemporary architecture for sale right now
A modern home in the countryside is a beautiful thing. Compared to their city counterparts, new homes in the great outdoors have a more direct relationship to nature, bring with them the advantage of having more space to play with, as well as the potential for more creative flair than strict urban planning rules permit. Here, we share the best examples of rural contemporary architecture for sale right now.
Outhouse, Brockweir, Gloucestershire
Artists Jean and Michael Dunwell tasked architects Loyn & Co with turning a series of Victorian buildings on a hillside in the Forest of Dean into a contemporary country home that would be comfortable, efficient and big enough for both their studios.
The resulting house is a single expanse of concrete with internal courtyards and outward-facing terraces that make best use of the site’s remarkable position overlooking the Wye Valley, a beautiful and unspoilt ancient woodland.
“I always had in mind a very calm, uncomplicated space and the architect’s proportions are beautifully calculated for that,” said Jean when we visited the couple for our ‘Open House’ series.
Warrenders, Fairlight, East Sussex
This contemporary home, built in 2014, replaces a 1950s bungalow and derelict barn on an elevated site in East Sussex with views to the coast in one direction and the surrounding countryside to the other. The design of the house, based around a steel frame, makes full use of this position, with large picture windows, full-height folding doors and a dramatically cantilevered second-floor living room that projects out from the main structure by six and a half metres.
Isis View, Burcot, Oxfordshire
Just outside Oxford, in the village of Burcot, this house is a wonderfully surprising and original contribution to contemporary rural architecture in the UK. Due to its position on the banks of the River Isis, water informed Sam Selencky of Selencky Parsons’s design throughout, with a light-feeding weir, linear water feature and swimming pool all being integral components of the scheme. As such, water reflects light throughout and guides the eye over the pool outwards, towards the river and countryside beyond.
Material choices are equally informed by the riverside context, with iroko, a hardwood more commonly used in boatmaking, used for the richly-textured louvres inside the house. These contrast pleasingly with the sheer white-walled expanses elsewhere, which take inspiration from American modernism to cool, California-esque effect.
The Old Rectory, Michelmersh, Hampshire
Not all examples of rural contemporary architecture take the form of brand new, one-off builds, as this artfully-restored Victorian rectory and coach house in the Hampshire village of Michelmersh demonstrates. The two beautiful red-brick buildings, dating from circa 1900, have been given a full contemporary rethink, including a linking glass pavilion that seamlessly unifies the two spaces.
Elsewhere, the period fabric has been brought into the 21st century with a modern spec consisting of an integrated lighting system, electrically-operated skylights, underfloor heating and Gaggenau appliances.
Plots and potential
For the most contemporary of countryside homes, why not consider something that is yet to be built? Clouds Garden Lodge represents the chance to build a modern country home designed by CaSA Architects in a beautifully-landscaped site enclosed in a 19th-century walled garden.
And, in Northamptonshire, a similar site in a former walled kitchen garden, once attached to Hellidon Grange, a Grade II-listed residence, now comes with planning permission to build a 4,000 sq ft Passivhaus home around a sunken pond.
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