Hampshire House, An Exemplary Piece Of Architecture In The English Countryside

The 1250-square-meter home is positioned on a slightly sloping plot, and thus features multiple stepped concrete-framed volumes to accommodate the incline. The interior is designed around a large, double-height kitchen, with a sizeable library and reading room on the second storey, looking down to the kitchen below. On the ground floor, rooms are scattered along a flint-clad “inhabitable wall”, that contains an indoor swimming pool at its rear end. Despite the residence’s observably large size, most individual rooms were kept small; their key feature being the floor-to-ceiling glass walls that provide panoramic views of the surrounding nature. “The spaces frame the three key views; the meadows, the lakes and the gardens”, explain the architects. “In the centre is the top lit, double height kitchen, around which the daily life of the family revolves”. An exemplary piece of architecture, ‘Hampshire House’ was influenced by the design of the ‘Katsura Villa’ in Kyoto, a source of inspiration to many architects due to its Modernist style and complex, modular site plan.