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LANDMARK HOUSES
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LANDMARK HOUSES
CONTENTS Buildings in the landscape
4-5
The vision
6-7
The projects
8 - 23
Alsop + Partners
8-9
Alison Brooks Architects
10 - 11
Featherstone Associates
12 - 13
Piers Gough, CZWG Architects
14 - 15
Eva Jiricna Architects
16 - 17
Roger Sherman Architecture
18 - 19
Sutherland Hussey Architects
20 - 21
Richard Reid and Associates
22 - 23
Landmark House Landscape
24 - 25
Interiors
26 - 27
Biographies
28 - 31
Wildlife at the Lower Mill Estate
32 - 33
“
Twenty two of the World’s best architects working alongside one another to design forty six individual Landmark homes on my Estate in Gloucestershire is not only unique but an honour for me and fulfils a lifelong ambition to wake up the architecture of this country and create a development in the Cotswolds countryside that stands alone on a global scale for its design and ecological excellence. The way that the designers have responded to the environment is, in my opinion, pure creative genius. It is so inspirational to see and work alongside such talent. Every one of the designs will be such cool spaces to live in. People can talk about this now, and that is great, but it is what they say in two or three hundred years that will be the real test. Jeremy Paxton, sponsor of Landmark Houses and owner of Lower Mill Estate
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BUILDINGS IN THE LANDSCAPE
“
These new houses have been sensitively integrated into the landscape.They are uncompromisingly modern, but respectful too.
”
When I saw the plans, my immediate impression was.... unbelievable.
It’s significant that not too far from Lower Mill is Poundbury, Prince
I thought this can’t be The Cotswolds. It must be California or Switzerland
Charles’ own experiment in building an ideal community.
or anywhere else on the globe where good, modern architecture seems
The Prince’s sentiments are admirable, but the architecture is lazy and
to happen naturally. But I was wrong. It is believable and it’s really
intellectually sentimental. Why does Prince Charles want eighteenth
happening in Gloucestershire.
century architecture, but not eighteenth century sewers? There is a house in Poundbury where a central heating flue exits through a gargoyle!
Masterpiece architecture is exciting enough wherever it is built, but there’s something extraordinary here. We are in the deeply conservative English
Instead of Poundbury’s lifeless, artless pastiche, Landmark Houses
countryside. For too long the culture of the country has been sentimental
offer vitality, variety and ingenuity.They show more intelligent respect for
and backward-looking: quite literally afraid to change.
their environment than a bad copy of a jobbing Georgian builder’s original.
But culture is about growth and evolution.These new houses have been sensitively integrated into the landscape.They are uncompromisingly
Of course, we want to keep the best of the countryside. But never forget: if you want things to stay the same, they are going to have to change.
modern, but respectful too. Happily, they prove the countryside is alive:
Poundbury apes a past that never really existed. Landmark Houses offer a
they are not yesterday’s tradition, but tomorrow’s.
taste of the future....now. Stephen Bayley
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THE VISION
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The 'Landmark Houses' programme is envisioned specifically for the site
Tobacco Company in 1905, the six miles of canals and intersecting streets
at Lower Mill Estate, in the Cotswold Water Park, where we have invited
and single storey timber frame houses aligned along tree lined canal
a number of architects, such as Will Alsop, Eva Jiricna, Sutherland Hussey,
banks, were part of his programme for a wider cultural renaissance.
Richard Meier and Partners, Roger Sherman, Sarah Featherstone, Alison
The community, characterised by a high degree of individuality which
Brooks, Piers Gough, Greg Lynn, etc. - an older generation at the peak of
determines its openness, was the place where the Beat poets later hung
their inventiveness, but still in wonder at the world out there, and a
out and where, in more recent years, the young avant-garde architects of
younger generation in the process of re-invention as they gather a second
LA, including Frank Gehry, began to cut their teeth on a series of
breath - and asked each one to speculate on the architectural poetics and
adventurous house designs.
ecological considerations for the design of a 'landmark house' within such a context.
HOW AND WHY WE HAVE PULLED SUCH TALENT TOGETHER Down at Lower Mill, there was already a 'landmark building', in the form
More by luck than judgement, we've started off with eight architects and
of the existing listed Mill. Right from the start it was clear that in order to
eight designs, as did the celebrated 'Case Study Houses' programme of
avoid the proposed plan looking like the archetypal housing estate, some
Southern California.This programme, initiated by John Estenza, a
house designs would have to take on a similar role to that of the Mill
champion of Modernism and editor of the avant-garde monthly magazine,
building.The converted Howell's Barn was already just such a 'landmark
Arts and Architecture, started off in January 1945 when he commissioned
house', whilst Somerford Villa, which stands in the water at the edge of a
eight nationally known architects, each to design their own answer to
narrow peninsular jutting out into Somerford Lagoon, was the first of the
create a house "to fulfil the specification of a special living problem in the
new houses to be designed specifically as a 'landmark house' for one of
Southern California area". In addition there was a requirement that each
our clients.
house designed "must be capable of duplication and in no sense be an individual performance".
These houses are the equivalent, architecturally, of what the limestone mansion or vicarage was in relation to the houses of the vernacular
They had no clients - the clients came later when construction began.
tradition. For the 'Landmark House' programme, we have 22 architects
They started off with eight architects and eight designs and finished, in
and a total of 48 'landmark houses' to design. Unlike the other house
1966, with a total of 36 individual houses by 20 practices, including the
types with their pitch, monopitch and mansarded roofs, and similar
iconic Stahl House (1959-60) by Piers Koenig, perched miraculously on
building genre, the 'landmark houses' will generally be more distinct
the hills above West Hollywood and Charles and Ray Eames' own house
architecturally - sometimes with a flat roof or with a roof terrace, more
in Pacific Palisades (1945-49) - one of the great influences on English
elaborate use of decking, sometimes of a 'grander scale' but all with a
architecture from the mid 1960's. But the Case Study Houses were
greater concern for spatial and sculptural elaboration and poetical
spread over a wide area of southern California from the north west of
sensibilities, etc.
Santa Monica to the south east of Pasadena, whilst the 'Landmark Houses' here are located entirely in one 550 acre site in the Cotswold Water Park.
The standard types we have provided for Lower Mill Estate are our 'vernacular' or 'common' buildings for the site and, as such, have a shared building language - the codes, or rules, if you like. Such building is definable
In addition, unlike the 'Case Study Houses', the 'Landmark Houses'
and specifiable. 'Architecture', by its very nature, is more allusive. For the
programme is concerned with the design of one-off houses, that act
architecture of the 'landmark houses', what rules there are, are those to
architecturally as 'focal points' within the simpler building vernacular of
be provided by each individual architect. But it is the building, or
the development. If anything, these buildings are an 'individual
vernacular of the development, at Lower Mill, that provides the
performance' and bring to mind the recent architectural development of
'framework' or setting for the 'architecture' and, in a sense, makes the
Venice California. Founded by Abbot Kinney of the Kinney Brothers
'architecture' possible. Richard Reid
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ALSOP + PARTNERS, LANDMARK HOUSE
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ALSOP + PARTNERS, LANDMARK HOUSE
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ALISON BROOKS ARCHITECTS, HIDE HOUSE
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ALISON BROOKS ARCHITECTS, HIDE HOUSE
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FEATHERSTONE ASSOCIATES, ORCHID HOUSE
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FEATHERSTONE ASSOCIATES, ORCHID HOUSE
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PIERS GOUGH, CZWG ARCHITECTS, WATERMARK HOUSE
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PIERS GOUGH, CZWG ARCHITECTS, WATERMARK HOUSE
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EVA JIRICNA ARCHITECTS, LANDMARK HOUSE
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EVA JIRICNA ARCHITECTS, LANDMARK HOUSE
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ROGER SHERMAN ARCHITECTURE, LANDMARK HOUSE
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ROGER SHERMAN ARCHITECTURE, LANDMARK HOUSE
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SUTHERLAND HUSSEY ARCHITECTS, LANDMARK HOUSE
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SUTHERLAND HUSSEY ARCHITECTS, LANDMARK HOUSE
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RICHARD REID AND ASSOCIATES, THE SUNDANCE VILLA
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RICHARD REID AND ASSOCIATES, THE SUNDANCE VILLA
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ELLEN LANDSCAPE DESIGNS AND BREEZE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, LANDMARK HOUSE LANDSCAPE
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INTERIORS
Kelly Hoppen is best known as the interior designer whose calm, elegant aesthetic has permeated our consciousness and achieved an iconic (and much imitated) status. Inspired by the East, her interiors evoke a harmony based on rules of balance and order and a use of neutral colours, where contrasting and shocking fabrics are preferred over colour to provide a sense of depth and warmth. Leathers and cashmeres, suedes and linens, silks and cottons are layered in the same tones. Her aim has always been to please all senses and provide homes where one is at peace: a space you connect with and love.
“
My design philosophy is to create a space that allows my client to feel safe, comfortable, relaxed and happy. I am convinced that a calm, quiet and harmonious interior can be as beneficial to health as a sensible diet and regular exercise. Jeremy Paxton’s philosophy at Lower Mill embraces these objectives and I am delighted to join the team in creating something truly remarkable in the Gloucestershire Countryside. Kelly Hoppen, interior designer for the Landmark Houses
”
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BIOGRAPHIES
JEREMY PAXTON Jeremy Paxton is 45 years of age and by profession (but not occupation) a commercial pilot. Born in Hackney, East London, he has three children Red 22, Ruby 17 and Rory 12. Jeremy grew up in the New Forest and it was here that he developed his love of the countryside and nature. He spent the first 6 years of his adult life as a beach bum and then launched a number of magazine titles that were sold to United Newspapers in 1988. Following a 2 year period of idleness Jeremy built a property company with two partners before selling his shares to one of the 3 to opt out of the main stream and purchase the Lower Mill Estate, a 550 acre site of special scientific interest in Gloucestershire.The first 2 years were spent designing the concept of the UK's first residential nature reserve where families could be brought both closer together and closer to nature in houses that set new architectural standards for a UK vacation home.The Estate is both debt and partner free.
WILL ALSOP Will Alsop is one of the most prominent of UK architects. His practice is an international operation, but one guided by the principle that architecture is both vehicle and symbol of social change and renewal.The philosophy extends from the design of individual buildings to embrace broader principles of urbanism and city development. By abandoning the hegemony of an acceptable style, he has rendered the whole process of architecture one of increasing fluidity and transparency; a new and refreshing position for architecture. Will Alsop follows a parallel path as an artist, feeling that it is a discipline inseparable from architecture. He was a tutor of sculpture at Central St. Martins College of Art & Design, London, for several years, has held many other academic posts, and actively promotes the artistic contribution to the built environment. His paintings and sketches have been exhibited alongside his architectural projects in dedicated exhibitions at Sir John Soane's Museum, Milton Keynes Gallery, Cube Gallery, Manchester, the British Pavilion at Venice Biennale and many others.
ABA, ALISON BROOKS Alison Brooks Architects, founded in London in 1996, has developed an international reputation with award-winning work in urban design, housing, commercial interiors and landscape. ABA.s work is intensely situation-specific, often cross-fertilizing with disciplines outside of architectural profession to create a fertile mulch of ideas at the core of each project.The aim is extend the boundaries of architectural experience through an integration of interior and landscape, exploring a new language of smooth space, de-materialization, texture and movement. ABA has collaborated with some of the UK's most prominent new generation of artists to integrate site-specific art into the work. In addition to winning a 2002 RIBA award for the VXO House Hampstead, which features in the newly published Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture, ABA was shortlisted for the British Pavilion at the 2002 Venice IX Architecture Biennale and for the Blueprint Awards 2002 Best Residential Building. ABA's Atoll Hotel interior on the island of Helgoland, Germany won 1st Prize in two categories at the European Hotel Design and Development Awards 2000 and has been described as a benchmark in contemporary hotel design. ABA is featured as one of 33 female-led practices worldwide in the book 'The Architect - Women in Contemporary Architecture'. Alison Brooks was born in Canada and educated at University of Waterloo before moving to London in 1989. She joined Ron Arad's One Off Studio and in 1991 became a found-ing partner of Ron Arad Associates where she completed the New Israeli Opera Foyer Architecture and the award-winning London restaurants Belgo Noord and Belgo Centraal. Based in North London ABA is a 10 strong practice committed to excellence in design, technical quality and client service.
GARY CHANG, EDGE DESIGN INSTITUTE LTD Gary Chang founded his company EDGE in 1994, and quickly gained a reputation for his dedication to work and award-winning multi-disciplinary designs. In 2003, the company was renamed EDGE Design Institute to better describe its mix of research-based and commercial activities. In the past decade, Gary’s major cultural and educational commissions have included the controversial Suitcase House in Beijing at the Commune by the Great Wall , the Kung Fu Tea Set for leading lifestyle accessories design brand Alessi, a ‘Workstation’ for Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific,The Broadway Cinematheque in Hong Kong, recalibration of The Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Mega-iAdvantage Data Centre Building in Hong Kong and numerous other projects in China, Hong Kong, Japan, middle East and Europe. Chang has won many awards in Asia and across the globe for his architectural, interior and product designs including the International Design Competition at the XVII Triennial Exhibition of Architecture, Milan (1985),The Hong Kong Institute of Architect President’s Prize (1996),The Hong Kong Young Architect Award (1996), ar+d Awards in 2002 and 2003 in Copenhagen and London respectively,The 25th Central Glass International Architectural Design Competition in Tokyo (1990), The Dedalo-Minosse International Prize,Vicenza (2002) and he was the only Hong Kong/China architect included in the publication ‘40 Architects Under 40’ published by Taschen in 2000. Gary Chang’s projects were twice presented at the International Biennial Exhibition of Architecture in Venice (2000 & 2002). He has published and planned a series of literary works and academic theses including ‘Suitcase House’ (2004), ‘Hotels As Home’ (2005) and ‘Gary Chang – Edge Works’ (2005). Gary Chang graduated from The University of Hong Kong in 1987 with a degree in architecture. He was born in Hong Kong in 1962.
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YUNG HO CHANG Born in Beijing in 1956,Yung Ho Chang received his Master of Architecture degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984. Became a licensed architect in the U.S. in 1989. Has been practicing in China since 1992 and established Atelier Feichang Jianzhu (FCJZ) in 1993. He is the Principal Architect of Atelier FCJZ as well as the Head and Professor of the Peking University Graduate Center of Architecture. He has won a number of prizes, such as First Place in the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition in 1987, a Progressive Architecture Citation Award in 1996, and the 2000 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts. He has published four monographs so far, the latest one in English/French entitled Yung Ho Chang / Atelier Feichang Jianzhu: A Chinese Practice. He has taught at various architecture schools in the USA, including Ball State, Michigan, U.C. Berkeley, Rice, and Harvard, where he was the Kenzo Tange Chair Professor of 2002, and has lectured extensively, recently at Yale, Princeton, Cornell, SCI-Arc, Penn, Columbia, and Berkeley in the USA, Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University, as well as Tunghai University in Taiwan. In the fall 2005, he will become the Head of Architecture at MIT.
PIERRE D’AVOINE Pierre d’Avoine runs an architects office based in London and practices internationally with work in Japan, India, Italy, Ghana, the West Indies and in Tehran where he designed the Climate House, an experimental project for The Iranian Fuel Conservation Organisation, in association with Golzari (NG) Architects. The work of the practice includes housing, offices, mixed-use developments, urban design, interior design and public art projects, and has been widely published and exhibited. In 1999 the practice won the Concept House competition with Slim House, a prototype of which was built at the Ideal Home Show that year. Pierre was born in Bombay, moved to London when he was 11 and studied architecture at the Birmingham School of Architecture in the 1970s. He set up Pierre d’Avoine Architects in London in 1979. Pierre is a visiting professor at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff, and has taught at the Architectural Association, the Bartlett (UCL), the University of Bath, the Royal College of Art, Oxford Brookes University, Buckingham Chilterns University College and Chelsea School of Art. He has also lectured and broadcast extensively in the UK and abroad.
DIXON JONES Jeremy Dixon has been working as a principal in private practice since 1977, having graduated from the Architectural Association School in 1963. Jeremy Dixon won first prize with Edward Jones in 1972 for an international competition for Northamptonshire County Offices. He built a number of housing projects in London on sensitive infill sites, mainly in the Westminster planning area. He won the competition for a coffee shop at the Tate Gallery and subsequently designed the restaurant. In 1983 he was successful, in association with BDP, in an international selection process for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Jeremy Dixon has exhibited at the 1981 Venice Biennale, taught at the Architectural Association and the Royal College of Art and has been an RIBA external examiner. Jeremy Dixon was knighted in the New Year’s Honours List, 2000. EDWARD JONES AA DIP (HONS) RIBA Edward Jones graduated from the Architectural Association School in 1963 and since 1973 has been a principal in private practice. In 1983 he won first prize in an international competition for Mississauga City Hall, Canada which won the GovernorGeneral's Award in 1990. Edward Jones' work has been widely published and exhibited - he represented Britain at the 1980 Venice Biennale. From 1975-82 he was senior tutor at the Royal College of Art. Since the mid-1980s he has been a visiting professor at various universities in North America and is currently external examiner for the RIBA and various architectural schools in the UK and abroad. His book, a comprehensive 'Guide to the Architecture of London', was written with Christopher Woodward and published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in 1983. Dixon Jones has a wide range of architectural experience.The practice first came to prominence with its winning submission for the Northampton County Offices Competition in 1973. Since then it has won many national and international competitions and awards, most notably Mississauga City Hall (Canada) in 1982, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1984 and the Venice Bus Station in 1991.They formed a limited company with Building Design Partnership to implement the Royal Opera House project, finished in December 1999. The following year the National Portrait Gallery renovation and improvements to Somerset House, (fountains, café and bridge), were opened to the public. In 1998 Dixon Jones was commissioned as masterplanner for the National Gallery.
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SARAH FEATHERSTONE Architect Sarah Featherstone is the director of award winning practice Featherstone Associates. The practice's projects have included private houses, community and arts projects. Following the completion of Sarah’s own home in Voss Street, east London and the suburban Drop House, the practice see the private house as a test bed for creative innovation. Underpinning the practice's work is a desire to make the creation of architecture enjoyable and to open up the unexpected. Where possible this includes encouraging public participation in the evolution of projects.This inclusive working ethic combined with teaching, assessing and lecturing are part of the practice's overall desire to involve people in the design of their environments. They have designed and participated in exhibitions and events ranging from work with the Hayward Gallery to the Architecture Foundation. This refreshing approach has been reflected in the growing number of projects completed.
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FREISING & FREISING, Gerhardt Freising studied at Stuttgart University and then worked for Ernst Gisel in Zurich. Later he taught for several years in the UK, Europe and the USA before accepting the post of Professor of Architecture in Trier, Germany. Establishing his architectural practice in Trier in 1975, with his wife Ursula, also a graduate of Stuttgart, they specialise in public and private housing, museum buildings and mixed use urban projects. He is also a member of the Executive Committee Bund Deutscher Architekton, Landesverband Rheinland-Pfalz. Key projects include the extension of the historic Landesmuseum,Trier, a project won in a national architect competition (1997); the housing project Olbeschhof (1995) and the rowing club along the river at Trier built in timber construction (2001). The practice has received several awards, including one for outstanding buildings (1986) Architecture and City Planning (1995); the BDA Architecture Prize for the Landesmuseum,Trier and the Holzbaupreis Rheinland-Pfalz for a building in timber construction (2001).
PIERS GOUGH CBE RIBA RA Born in Brighton in 1946, Piers Gough studied at the Architectural Association in London between 1965 and 1971. After this, he worked alone or with his future partners, before the practice of Campbell, Zogolovitch, Wilkinson & Gough (now known as CZWG) was set up in 1975. Principal buildings of the practice include: China Wharf, Cascades,The Circle, Wolfe Crescent, Dundee Wharf and Batsons and Regents Wharves all in London’s Docklands; 200 Aztec West; various buildings at Bryanston and Uppingham Schools; the Street-Porter house in London, 66 Vauxhall; Summer’s Street, Soho Lofts, Bankside Lofts, Bankside Studios and The Glass Building in London; the Westbourne Grove Public Lavatories and flower kiosk and new galleries at the National Portrait Gallery. His café at Brindleyplace in Birmingham won a Royal Fine Art Commission & British Sky Broadcasting Building of the Year Award in 1998. In 1999, the Glass Building won a National Homebuilder Design Award for Best New Housing Development of the Year, as did Bankside Lofts in SE1 for Best Restoration and Conversion of an Existing Building, which also won a Civic Trust Award. In 2001, Piers’ Green Bridge at Mile End Park in East London won an RIBA Award. In 2003, Fulham Island won the Evening Standard London Lifestyle Award. The Masterplan for the Gorbals in Glasgow has won universal acclaim as an exemplar of inner city regeneration. Masterplans for a City Science quarter in Glasgow, the Vaux site in Sunderland and Ladbroke Green in Notting Hill Gate have followed. Piers was appointed a CBE for services to architecture in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honour List. He was elected a Royal Academician in 2002. He is currently a Commissioner of English Heritage and on its Stonehenge Board, Design Champion for Kent and a Trustee of Trinity Buoy Wharf.
JAMES GORST For the last 20 years the focus of their work has been concentrated upon the intimate intricacies of the private house.The chamber music of Architecture.The challenge for them lies in reconciling the mutually antagonistic demands of formal experimentation with the functional necessities of everyday life.
SUTHERLAND HUSSEY CHARLIE HUSSEY DIP ARCH. RIBA. Born 1962, he studied architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture. From 1987 he joined the office of Sir James Stirling, leaving in 1994 to work briefly for Renzo Piano in Italy, before returning to Scotland to establish the practice Sutherland Hussey Architects in Edinburgh.
Much of the practice’s understanding of architecture and construction has been gained in their work on historic and listed buildings, both in London and across the country.They have worked on buildings spanning a wide range of styles and periods including the Georgian Group’s headquarters in a Grade 1 Robert Adam building, to the internationalstyle modernism of Well Coates’ 1930’s Palace Gate apartment block.Their early work reflected the preoccupations of a practice absorbed in the intricacies of the craft and syntax of classical and vernacular idioms. That study of pre-existing codes of proportion, construction and decorative propriety has led now to a more abstract and personalised expression that connects to 20th Century modernism.
CHARLIE SUTHERLAND Born in Scotland in 1962, he studied architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture. From 1987 he joined the office of Sir James Stirling, going on to become an Associate and responsible for the overseeing of a number of internationally acclaimed projects. In 1997 he left Stirling’s and returned to Scotland to set up Sutherland Hussey Architects. Both combine practice with part-time teaching at the Mackintosh School of Architecture.
Key practice projects include the design of a large contemporary house set in a hundred acres of landscaped parkland on the fringe of Chelmsford (2002); the Lodge at Withurst Park, West Sussex, a large gatehouse forming the entrance to a large park; and the restoration and extension of a Grade II listed Tudor Suffolk farmhouse at Wakelins, Wickhambrook, Suffolk (2001-03). The practice has had numerous awards, a number of RIBA Regional Awards and Civic Trust Awards, whilst Wakelins was short listed for the Manser award in 2004.
Completed projects to date include private residences (The Barnhouse, Highgate was awarded the AJ First Building Award at the 2002 Stirling prize ceremony), an Art Gallery in Inverness and Lynher Dairy, Cornwall (also being awarded an RIBA award and the Civic Trust Special Award in the ‘rural buildings’ category in 2003).They have also recently completed a collaborative arts project in Tiree which has been awarded the RSA gold medal, an RIBA regional award and been shortlisted for both the RIAS Architecture award and Stirling prize in 2003.
ADRIAN JAMES MA DipArchCantab ARB RIBA “The admirable Adrian James does quirky and seriously interesting stuff ” Architects Journal Trained at Cambridge University, Adrian James gained his experience inter alia at John Outram Associates where he managed international projects of worldwide acclaim. Adrian James Architects was established 8 years ago in Oxford and has quickly gained a national reputation for design excellence, garnering many awards for buildings which succeed in being modern but with widespread appeal. In 2004, the practice achieved the unprecedented success of winning permission at public inquiry for a PPG7 ‘truly outstanding’ modern country house. Now in even more demand, Adrian James Architects are working on several such ground-breaking contemporary homes around the country.
EVA JIRICNA Eva formed her own small but thriving practice in the autumn of 1985, having lived and worked in London since 1968.The practice has an international reputation, and a broad scope of work including prestigious retail and commercial projects as well as product and exhibition design. Once the ‘Velvet Revolution’ brought down the Iron Curtain, she was finally able to return to her native Prague and work on a variety of projects there, including the Eastern European headquarters for Andersen Consulting in the controversial Gehry building, a new glasshouse in the grounds of Prague’s Castle, as the personal architectural consultant to President Havel, a couple of one off residential schemes, and currently a new hotel in central Prague. Eva's early experience with the Louis de Soissons Partnership on Brighton Marina in the '70's and Richard Rogers for the Lloyds building in the '80's served her in good stead as she acquired experience and displayed an innate flair for working with unusual materials. In 2000 the practice completed the Faith Zone for the Millennium Dome which proved popular with the general public despite the overwhelming negativity displayed by the press. Other recent projects include offices for Amec plc in London, fastidiously realised schemes for jewellers Boodle and Dunthorne and Time Products, the Kimberlin Library Extension at De Montfort University in Leicester and Canada Water Bus Station, part of the Jubilee Line Extension project, which has received several awards. Eva Jiricna was made a Royal Designer for Industry in 1991, received a CBE in 1994 for services to design, and was elected as a Royal Academician in 1997.
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BIOGRAPHIES
GREG LYNN Greg Lynn has been at the cutting edge of design in the field of architecture when it comes to the use of computer-aided design. The projects, publications, teachings and writings associated with his studio Greg Lynn FORM have been influential in the acceptance and use of advanced technology for design and fabrication. The office draws from the manufacturing and construction techniques germane to the aeronautic, automobile and film industries of Southern California. In addition to leading his design practice, he is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria and the Davenport Professor at Yale University. His architectural designs have received numerous awards including the Architecture Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, the Wexner Center for Arts Residency Prize, Progressive Architecture Citations and an AIA Honor Award. His work been exhibited in both architecture and art museums including the 2000 Venice Biennale of Architecture where his work represented the United States, at MoMA in NY, the MAK in Vienna, MoCA in Los Angeles and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His projects are regularly featured in international newspapers and magazines and in 2001 Time Magazine named him one of “100 Innovators of the Next Century”.
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MICHAEL PALLADINO, RICHARD MEIER AND PARTNERS As a Principal Designer of Richard Meier & Partners since 1979, Michael Palladino has worked closely with Richard Meier on many award-winning projects located throughout the world, including The Getty Center; the Decorative Arts Museum in Frankfurt, Germany; the High Museum in Atlanta; as well as the International Center for Possibility Thinking in Garden Grove, California. He has also served as Project Designer and Project Architect for many private residences constructed throughout the United States and overseas. Appointed Partner in 1985, Mr. Palladino moved to Los Angeles in 1986 to open Richard Meier & Partners' west coast office. Since that time, as Design Partner, he has been responsible for the new Broad Art Center at UCLA; the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills; the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills; Camden Medical Centre in Singapore; and currently, a new city hall and civic center in San Jose, California; private residences in Kuala Lumpur, Malibu, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara, California; and highrise luxury condominiums in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Philadelphia. He was awarded the commission as Lead Designer of the new 600,000SF federal courthouse building in San Diego. Michael Palladino earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1977 and a Masters in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1979. He is a Registered Architect in California, New York and Pennsylvania. Mr. Palladino is a frequent guest lecturer, having spoken at USC, UCLA, the Louisiana Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and has served as a guest critic at architectural schools in the U.S. He is a recipient of the prestigious Rome Prize for the year 2000 – 2001 and the 2005 Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles.
JOHN PARDEY John Pardey studied architecture on the part-time course at the Polytechnic of the South Bank gaining a degree in 1981 and subsequently at the Polytechnic of Central London, graduating with distinction in 1983.The same year he was awarded the Bannister Fletcher Dissertation Prize. Between 1983 and 1988, he worked with a number of private practices gaining experience on a wide range of building types at all stages of the design and construction process, with the last few years spent as an associate in charge of a design team which built a number of eductional and residential projects. In 1998, following winning first prize in a competition for the design of a school, he established John Pardey Architects. He has been visiting critic at numerous architectural schools including South Bank, PCL, Canterbury, and Portsmouth and is currently external examiner at the Welsh School of Architecture. He has lectured extensively both in the UK and abroad. The practice has gained over twenty national and international competition awards and featured as one of the best new practices in both the 1999 and the 2001 Editions of the Architecture Foundation / Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s publication, ‘New architects 2 – a guide to Britain’s best young architectural practices’. John Pardey’s book ‘Utzon:Two houses on Majorca’, was published by Edition Bløndal in January 2005.
ANDY RAMUS Andy Ramus is a 33 year old architect who trained at Plymouth and the AA. In 2001 after 5 years having worked for various practices, he set up on his own and is now based in Winchester.The Practice has a variety of interesting project under its belt with the emphasis being on the use of glass. In 2003 Andy took this interest to the next level and started a design and build company GlasSpace solely devoted to the construction of glass structures.
RICHARD REID Member of the RIBA, studied architecture at the Northern Polytechnic, London (awarded the RIBA Prize for Final Exams) and at the Accademia Britannica, Rome (as a Rome Scholar in Architecture). Director of Richard Reid & Associates (UK), architectural practice based in Sevenoaks, Kent, and Richard Reid & Associates (USA), a set design studio located in LA.Taught for many years at various architectural schools in UK, Europe and the USA; was Project Director for EEC funded joint study programme between the architecture schools of Stuttgart,Venice, Dublin and the Polytechnic of the South Bank, London.Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia, as well as partner in practice in Boston (USA) for five years. Numerous articles on architecture and urban design published in a variety of magazines including The Architectural Review; Architectural Design;The Architects Journal; Casabella; L'Architecture d'Aujourdhui; L'Architectura, etc. Author of several books including The Book of Cottages (Michael Joseph 1977); The Georgian House and its Details, (Bishopsgate Press 1989). Key projects include the Villa Vasone, (Progressive Architecture Award USA); Epping Forest Civic Offices, won in architectural competition, (RIBA Award); Finland Quays Housing (Prize at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition); New Museum of the Acropolis, Athens, (competition project exhibited in The Art of the Process at the RIBA and in the Royal Academy travelling exhibition to the USA Contemporary British Architects); masterplan for the District of Kleinzschocher, Leipzig, won in International Competition; masterplan and urban design for the 160 acres development of the Bertalia-Lazzaretto District of Bologna, won in International competition with Sartogo Associatti, Studio Arco and Richard Meier & Partners, (LA). Current work includes numerous private houses and housing association work as well as being Architect and Masterplanner for the Lower Mill Estate.
ROGER SHERMAN Roger Sherman is principal of Roger Sherman Architecture and Urban Design in Santa Monica, CA, and Director of the FreshURBS postgraduate program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles. He edited and was a contributor to "RE American Dream: Six Housing Prototypes for Los Angeles (Princeton Architectural Press), and recently completed work on "Under the Influence: Negotiating the Complex Logic of Urban Property", forthcoming from the Univ. of Minnesota Press. He was awarded first prize in the West Hollywood Civic Centre International Design Competition of 1987. Other key projects include Robbin Residence, Santa Monica (2002);Vogel Residence, Pacific Palisides (2001); Byrne/Brofman Residence, Santa Monica (2003); 3-in-1 House, Santa Monica (2004). Multi-family residential projects include First Interstate Bank South Central Affordable Housing, South LA (1995), the Alta Vista mixed-use project, San Fernando (2003) and 26 condominiums and retail in West Avenue, LA (2003). Urban design and landscape projects include the North Hollywood Transit-Orientated District Plan 1998; the Re Park, Freskills Land Fill End Use Plan 2002 and current work on the Adams Square Mini-Park, Glendale. The practice has received many architectural awards and commendations including progressive Architecture Award for Urban Design (1989), AIA Honour Award for Project ‘Next/LA’ (1998); American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award for RE Park, Freshkills landfill project (2002); AIA Architects Award for 3-in-1House, 2004.
PATEL TAYLOR ARCHITECTS Encompassing Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape, Patel Taylor’s projects include major regeneration such as the Thames Barrier Park, masterplans for Ayr, Reims, Antwerp and St Paul’s School, through to education, leisure and housing projects. Each scale serves to inform the other, allowing us the potential to look at related issues from a broad perspective, whilst maintaining a focus on the individual project. We respond with sensitivity and innovation to a site and brief, to provide outstanding solutions for all our clients, who range from local authorities, lottery applicants, enterprise bodies and the private sector. Many of our projects have been won through international competitions, and these together with our numerous awards, (including 5 RIBA awards), and variety of publications testify to the quality of our work. Both partners act as awards assessors for the RIBA and Civic Trust, are visiting Professors at the University of Cardiff and are members of committees including CABE and the Arts Council.
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WALTER MENTETH BA DipArch ARB RIBA Walter Menteth was educated at the universities of Nottingham and Southbank (UK) and the University of Stuttgart, Germany, graduating in 1983. Setting up practice in London in 1985, Walter Menteh has had considerable experience in various architectural fields including masterplanning and urban design, (with particular experience around London’s King Cross and the Elephant and Castle), mixed-use projects and innovative housing design for various housing associations and other residential clients.The practice work was also included in the Architecture Foundation’s guide to New British Architects, 1998. He is a design advisor for the South East England Development Agency and a member of the South East England Regional Design Panel. In the field of transport planning he was the author of the original report identifying the new extensions for the East London tube line. He has lectured at numerous architectural schools including Canterbury College of Art and Design, Kingston University and London Metropolitan University. He has also contributed to numerous TV and radio programmes both as presenter and critic. Key projects include housing at High Cross Road (2003), 333 Kennington Road (2002) and Gwynne Road (2001) all of which received architectural awards. The practice has received several Civic Trust Awards and RIBA Regional Awards as well as Housing Design Awards. In 2000, the Gwynne Road project was short listed for the Mies van der Rohe Architecture Award. The work of the practice has been published in numberous architectural and building publications, whilst Walter Menteth has also contributed many articles to leading professional publications and advisory bodies. Projects have been exhibited in numberous exhibitions both in the UK and abroad.
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SARAH WIGGLESWORTH Sarah Wigglesworth is principal of Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, member of the RIBA, she was awarded an MBE in 2003.The practice is interested in making sustainable communities that involve buildings employing the inventive use of readily-available materials. We have become known for our highly sensuous and spatially-exciting buildings.The best known demonstration of this approach is the award-winning Straw Bale House and Quilted Office in north London which has won several awards including the Civic Trust Award (2002), an RIBA Award and the RIBA’s prestigeous Sustainability Award, both in 2004.The practice is currently working on a school buildings as well as cultural and housing projects. In 1998 Sarah was named by the Sunday Times ‘Hot 100’ poll as one of three British architects most likely to make an impact on their field within the next ten years. She has been published and exhibited internationally and has lectured world wide. SARAH WIGGLESWORTH ARCHITECTS Sarah Wigglesworth Architects is interested in architecture which employs ordinary, readily-available materials in interesting new ways, and in exploring innovative design and aesthetic strategies for sustainable building. We believe that architecture is about the construction of ideas and our work is informed by a wide range of influences driven by a theorisation of the issues which surround design. Our most recent and best known project is the award-winning Straw Bale House and Quilted Office completed in January 2001 (Civic Trust Award 2003 and FS/Blueprint Best Residential Building of the Year 2002). In 2003 we completed one of the DfES’s Classrooms for the Future in Sheffield and the same year were selected as one of only five architects to design one of the DfES’s Primary Schools under their Exemplar Schools for the Future programme. Currently our workload includes the design of a dedicated building for the Siobhan Davies Dance Company, a Boating Club for the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (both Lottery funded projects), private houses, community projects, masterplanning and gardens.
KELLY HOPPEN – LIVING DESIGN Kelly Hoppen is best known as the interior designer whose calm, elegant aesthetic has permeated our consciousness and achieved an iconic (and much imitated) status. In October 2004, Kelly celebrated 25 years in business, and the culmination of a number of ambitious projects. In addition to leading her celebrated interior design studio – which has completed international schemes for houses, apartments, yachts, a hotel and numerous corporate spaces – Kelly has successfully implemented her unique approach across a number of business areas, firmly establishing her reputation as designer, retailer, author, educator, innovator and inspiration. Kelly’s domestic, retail and corporate retail interiors strive to touch all the senses; her writing and her school are designed to be both accessible and inspirational; and most importantly, her approach to design is fundamentally inclusive. When designing for clients, Kelly and her team begin with a detailed interview process to really understand the client needs and wants – everything from where they have breakfast to their bathroom habits.This lengthy process ensures that the design will grow from the client’s lifestyle, rather than being added to it. “Our homes are living spaces in which we grow and change – and we must accept that this will only happen if our environment can grow and change with us”, believes Kelly. “I believe that for far too long we have been designing our homes without a real understanding of our needs – or those of our family, lover, children or visitors”. As she looks toward the next 25 years, Kelly Hoppen’s vision is clear. All projects have the context of maturity and experience.Trust and belief work hand in hand with experimentation and innovation. Short-lived trends give way to commitment and permanence – an enduring romance rather than a short fling. And within all this, Kelly’s creativity and enthusiasm – for her life and her work - continue unbounded.
ELMA FENTON Elma Fenton, Landscape Architect BA (Hons )Dip (Hons.), MLA, ILI, Horticulturalist, is an inspirational and experienced landscape architect and garden designer with horticultural grounding and knowledge. Elma’s design flair along with creativity provides an innovative and sensitive approach to transforming exterior spaces through pure design and approach.
BREEZE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS Breeze is a partnership between landscape architects Neil Black and Paul Swann based in North London. Between them the partners have eighteen years experience working with some of the major players in the landscape architectural profession on a diverse range of acclaimed projects throughout England, Scotland and mainland Europe. The practice was established in June 2004.
Individual proposals are adapted with every client, creating practical, original designs that are visually interesting. Structures, textures and materials unify the design. After completing her degree at the University of Greenwich in London, Elma has worked on a diverse number of projects in Southeast Asia, America, Australasia and Europe through her design business, Ellen Landscape Designs.
Our current projects include: the design and construction of a new Business Innovation Centre in Peterborough, won through an international RIBA Competition, which is based upon a bold contemporary design combined with sound habitat creation principles and sustainable concepts; design of a series of external performance spaces as part of a new theatre and cultural centre development at Wigan Pier; the creation of a new sustainable primary school and associated community facilities for a new masterplan development in Wellingborough; and, acting as design advisors to The London Borough of Barnet for a range of large scale mixed use regeneration schemes. Paul has also recently been appointed to the Enabling Panel of The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.
Elma’s company, Ellen Landscape Designs, has worked on a wide spectrum of projects both here and abroad which have included residential design and build commissions, commercial projects, detailed planting plans and specifications. A positive approach is taken to problem solving, development imaginative and realistic solutions. With attention to detail and a talent for planting design Ellen Landscape Designs have built a successful practice. The company has just completed the successful ‘Moat & Castle Eco-garden’ that won a silver medal at Chelsea Flower Show 2005, a project carried out in collaboration with Breeze Landscape Architects.
WILL VICARY Will Vicary, the estate manager for Lower Mill Estate is from a Cotswold farming family and first came to the estate as a boy to windsurf on Mill Lake. Following a degree in Agricultural and Environmental Science, Will then spent five years farming in Eastern Europe and at one time lived on an island in the Danube Delta where he was involved in regenerating sustainable agriculture. When time allows he travels extensively to further his interests in conservation and land management. Will has a particular interest in land use and the interaction between people and the natural environment around them.
Over the past twelve months we have also been short listed for two international design competitions: the design of a new National Aids Memorial in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and the redesign of Bonn Square in Oxford. Through these competitions our work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, Modern Art Oxford and The Royal Institute of British Architects in London. At this years Chelsea Flower Show, Neil has won a Silver Medal for the ‘Moat and Castle’ eco-garden in collaboration with Irish landscape architect and garden designer Elma Fenton.
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WILDLIFE AT THE LOWER MILL ESTATE
The Lower Mill Estate supports an impressive array of wildlife ranging from more familiar species such as fox, roe deer and tufted duck through to some more unusual species such as the stunning bee orchid and little ringed plover. Part of the reason behind the diverse and abundant wildlife is the range of habitats including open water, rivers, woodland, unimproved grassland, gardens and meadowland among others. The other underlying factor is the fact that, where necessary, these habitats are being managed specifically for the wildlife reliant on them and that makes Lower Mill very unusual. One example of this is the Swillbrook river, a well used otter corridor on which an extensive section has been dog-proofed to minimise disturbance. A sustained programme of mink trapping has also been carried out and has resulted in the return of the endangered water vole to this watercourse. Another example can be seen in Pike Corner, an area of species-rich grassland that has been designated a SSSI for its botanical interest which includes spiny restharrow, bog pimpernel and snake’s head fritillary, all plants of conservation concern. Having been undermanaged and in decline for a number of years, this area is once again flourishing under an intensive grazing regime being used to restore it.These success stories are repeated throughout the estate and the evidence can be seen every day in the fascinating and beautiful creatures and plants that make Lower Mill their home.
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Will Vickary
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Lower Mill Estate Minety Lane Somerford Keynes Cirencester GL7 6BG Tel: 01285 861056 www.lmearchitecture.com