Category Archives: Architecture/Design

Contemporary ‘Farmsteads’ #2

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Matt Wood

Before I signed off at the end of the year I was talking about contemporary ‘farmsteads’ – one of my four rural archetypes. I had it in mind to talk about how a dense grouping of dwellings laid out around … Continue reading →

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Contemporary ‘Farmsteads’?

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Matt Wood

If Crown Paddock serves as a rather literal exemplar of the ‘farmstead’ (one of my four rural archetypes), how about this from Dutch architects Atelier Pro, in a proposal for new development around Norwich Research Park led by Norwich-based development … Continue reading →

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Roofs Across Fields #4 – A Modern ‘Take’

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Matt Wood

As I said before (here), my opinion that the roof is more important than the wall in the rural landscape of Norfolk was based in no small part on hours spent gazing out of train windows on the Norwich to … Continue reading →

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Rural Simplicity #2 – Hunsett Mill

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Matt Wood

Finally, I’ve found time for a few words about Hunsett Mill which won the Manser Medal for ‘Best New House’ at the RIBA Awards a few weeks back. But it’s not really my own words I’m focussing on; it’s something … Continue reading →

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Roofs Across Fields #3

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Matt Wood

I talked in the last post about how growing trees can change the appearance of an urban edge over time, which reminded me…

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Roofs Across Fields #2

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Matt Wood

The observations I’ve made so far about the Norfolk landscape and its built forms (my four archetypes) might be interesting to some of you in their own right, but what I’m really interested in is how they might inform how … Continue reading →

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Roofs Across Fields

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Matt Wood

Hitherto I’ve described four rural archetypes that I identified when I showed some clients around Norfolk this summer: the nucleated and non-nucleated village, the wide-fronted house and the farmstead. I haven’t listed ‘roofs across fields’ as an archetype, but it … Continue reading →

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Norfolk DNA #4 – The Farmstead

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Matt Wood

The last of the four ‘rural archetypes’ I identified for my recent guided-tour of Norfolk was the farmstead – or perhaps, more generally, a relatively dense rectilinear grouping of buildings; the wider definition allows this archetype to be represented also by … Continue reading →

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Norfolk’s DNA #3 – The Wide-Fronted House

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Matt Wood

The Stable Acre house also put me in mind of my third ‘rural archetype’ (see previous post) – the wide-fronted house. Stable Yard isn’t really an exemplar of the type, but it does display two of its main characteristics – it … Continue reading →

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Rural Simplicity?

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Matt Wood

A few pages on from my recent letter in Building Design (BD) was a piece on architect David Kohn’s recently completed project, Stable Acre in Norfolk. The long, low house incorporates the remains of a brick stable-block, but appears almost … Continue reading →

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