Monthly Archives: November 2010

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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Urban or Rural? The Sustainability Question

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Matt Wood

My mind has been on other things this week, away from the immediacies of the Community Right to Build (Localism Bill out soon?) and my rambling treatise on architecture in a rural context. I’ve actually been thinking about sustainability, aided … 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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How to CRTB # 5 – Two Farmers and a Wedding.

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Matt Wood

I was at a wedding in Suffolk this weekend, and had interesting conversations with two farmers. After dissecting the impact that the Russian harvest was having on domestic grain prices, and the merits and demerits of forward-selling commodities, I raised … Continue reading →

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What Would You Do With Half a Million Quid?

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Matt Wood

In my worked example I imagined a Community Right to Build project of ten houses for sale, generating a pot of money for the CRTB ‘good cause’ of around half million quid. What does that buy?

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How to CRTB #4 – A Worked Example

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Matt Wood

Following the discussion about Community Right to Build (CRTB) over the past weeks and months, it strikes me that it is still focused firmly on affordable housing. As I have suggested previously, the CRTB may make a modest contribution to … Continue reading →

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How to CRTB #3 – Watch This Space

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Matt Wood

If you’re interested in the ‘mechanics’ of a Community Right to Build project, rather than the more design-related themes I’ve been focussing on lately, do keep an eye on Ruralise for the next week or so*. I’m doing a ‘worked … 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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