The House on Redbrae Farm stands in the green, undulating landscape of rural County Down. Although modest in scale, this new family home is hugely ambitious in terms of the refinement of an architectural language and in the quality of its making. It has a direct yet comfortable relationship to the landscape on three levels: the immediate site, the surrounding fields, and beyond to the northern hills. There is a Japanese sense of ‘shakkei’ – of borrowing the long views back into the intimacy of the interiors. The apparent ease and elegance expressed in plan, section, and detail belie the many years of dedication these architects have made to the discipline of architecture.
The clients had inherited a derelict cottage on a farm that has been in the family for generations. You sense through the qualities of the design their intimate connection and understanding of this particular landscape.
The vernacular domestic architecture of the north is characterised by steeply pitched roofs and thick walls, inset with small windows. The house was a retreat from the landscape and the weather. The land was a place of work rather than leisure. In conversation with the clients, however, another sensibility was explored. Through their travels, in Greece, they enjoyed houses that had a more engaged relationship with the landscape. A feeling for both the local and the foreign, tradition and modernity, haunts the new house.
The building’s plan is remarkably simple, veiling the architects’ astuteness and the contractors’ skill. The overall form does not ape the vernacular’s pitched roofs: it is lower pitched and asymmetric, speaking of the local yet suggesting something more contemporary. The emphatic chimney acts as the focus of the plan, while externally it stands as a strong figure in the landscape.
The main entrance is pressed into the plan to create a deep shadowed sheltered recess. Once inside, a small hall acts as the preamble to the generous main space comprising living, dining, and kitchen. This memorable space is raised above the entrance by a few steps. In the manner of an 18th century country house, the house looks north towards a sunlit landscape, a place for reflection rather than toil.
A snug and modestly sized bedrooms enjoy carefully composed views of the farm buildings to the south and west. The gables break the tradition of blank walls: both are canopied and occupied, to the east service areas, to the west a bench and barbeque area that catch the evening sun.
The detailing and workmanship are superb; there is no sense of verbosity or extravagance. Rather, there is a directness and eloquent economy that creates spaces of great stillness – a rare quality. The architects have navigated the design process through intelligence, discipline, and experience. The natural reticence of the north is palpable in their work. This architecture places a premium on a measured and careful exploration of the discipline itself: space, volume, proportion, material. All of these qualities have earned Alice Nickell the RSUA Project Architect of the Year Award.
