A Busy Weekend at Ruralise…

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Matt Wood

…thanks to a tweet by Ellis Woodman. Thanks again, Ellis!

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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 is essentially one room deep, and has its long axis parallel to the street. 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 as a new-build. I was very taken by it, particularly in the context of what I’m talking about here at Ruralise. Continue reading →

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Home on the Farm: Concreting the Countryside?

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Matt Wood

The ‘Home on the Farm’ initiative, mentioned in my last post, is a proposal to allow farmers to convert redundant buildings on their property into dwellings. In their coverage of the subject, news website ‘This is Somerset’ says the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England warns against ‘concreting over the countryside’. Continue reading →

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Affordable Housing Budgets Slashed by 60%

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Matt Wood

In presenting the Comprehensive Spending Review, George Osborne today confirmed early reports of a massive cut in the funding of affordable homes. Over the next four years capital investment will drop to £1.1bn per annum, compared to £2.8bn a year under the last three years of the HCA’s National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) – a 60% reduction year on year. Continue reading →

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So What?

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Matt Wood


What point was I trying to make with those last two rather nerdy posts about Horsham St Faith and Frettenham? What relevance do they have to the Community Right to Build? Continue reading →

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Norfolk’s DNA #2 – The Non-Nucleated Village

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Matt Wood

The second recognizable type of village one might call non-nucleated, as they have a much less well-defined centre. These villages may have only been tiny hamlets in mediaeval times, but many may have come into existence much later, perhaps associated with the enclosure of common lands during the C16th to C18th. They are comprised almost exclusively of detached houses, sometimes with the occasional short run of terraced cottages or early C20th council ‘semis’, and are low-density settlements, often straggling along a number of roads. Though certainly less photogenic than the first type, these later non-nucleated villages are more numerous and therefore arguably more typical of the rural landscape than their older counterparts. Continue reading →

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Thanks Building Design Magazine!

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Matt Wood

…for running my letter in this week’s edition. If you’ve come here from BD, welcome. Let me know if you found anything on the site interesting, and do keep an eye on me here – there’s plenty more to come.

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Norfolk’s DNA #1 – The Nucleated Village

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Matt Wood

Norfolk’s nucleated settlements – its picture postcard villages, if you will – have typically existed since mediaeval times, operating as markets, service-centres for Norman monasteries or castles, or capitalizing on passing trade at river-crossings. They have distinct and comparatively dense centres, characterized by more-or-less continuous runs of houses on one or more streets, surrounded by later phases of lower-density development. Images of these traditional village centres often form the back-bone of a house-builder’s planning application ‘design statement’, to support a claim for ‘local distinctiveness’ (more on this later)…but any similarities between a Norfolk village and a modern housing estate are fairly superficial. Continue reading →

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Loddon, not London

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Matt Wood

On a day like today it’s nice to be in Loddon, rather than London. Continue reading →

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