Shortlisted for RIBA House of the Year in 2019, Nithurst Farm is a new-build family house for the founding director of Adam Richards Architects. Located in the fields of South Downs National Park (UK), the house navigates between ancient and contemporary with its form and materiality.
Wrapped in a thick brick exterior, the building incorporates arched brick window openings along its elevations that lend a sense of rhythm. This sense of motion is enhanced by the form of the house, which ascends in a stepped motion as it rises from a single storey entrance to a three-storey tower form. Blackened bricks along one window edge are inserted to emphasize the overall sense of motion.
Behind the brick, structural concrete walls exposed to the interior are distinctly modern in their appearance.
The ground floor contains the house’s common areas. Creating a sense of false perspective and a heightened sense of journey, the plan tapers as one moves from the kitchen and dining room areas with grand 4.5-meter high ceilings towards the spectacular sitting room.
Contrasting with the concrete structure, with walls and ceiling left unfinished, pine floorboards, sisal carpets, and brass fittings are used alongside colourful furniture and ceramic pieces.
Two children’s bedrooms and three guest rooms are located on the first floor. The main bedroom occupies the top floor of the house. Spit into two halves, mirror-image bedrooms and dressing rooms lead to a shared bathroom looking north across open countryside.
Adam Richards, Director, Adam Richards Architects says: ‘This house for myself and my family represents the culmination of a 10-year engagement with this beautiful site in the South Downs National park. I wanted to experiment by mixing the geometries of abstract art with an aspect of traditional architectural forms and materials – whilst also designing a home to celebrate and intensify the experience of family life. On the one hand, it could be described as ‘an industrial ruin wrapped in a Roman ruin’, but it also represents a journey in time and space towards a spiritual homecoming.’
