David Chipperfield Architects has created this new house located on top of a slope and overlooking the valley, it becomes an element attached to the site and allows to recover the typical landscape of the area.

The project by David Chipperfield Architects replaces a previous two-story house with some other attached buildings which had nothing to do with the surrounding landscape. They creat a new house which is divided into two parts: the main house, which is ordered by a gallery, and ancillary rooms related to a series of courtyards.

Description of the project by David Chipperfield Architects

This family house is located on a large plot in the Chiltern Hills between the villages of Skirmett and Hambleden. The Chilterns are part of the system of chalk downs that run through eastern and southern England with over twenty per cent covered by woodland, making it one of the most heavily wooded areas in the country. It has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty since 1965.

The site was previously occupied by a two-storey house with a number of outbuildings including two garages, a summer house, large stables, a gym, a greenhouse and an outdoor swimming pool. This array of structures, together with hard landscaping, had accumulated in an ad hoc manner with little relationship to each other or to their environment. The proposed development presented an opportunity to restore a typical landscape by removing all of the conflicting features that had been superimposed onto it. In addition, the conifers and suburban planting from within and around the original woodlands were removed. The mosaic of small fields is reinstated by restoring the native hedgerows, while areas of new native woodland planting have been identified and woodland management introduced. Presenting itself as a large earthwork, like a dam sitting on the cusp of the slope, the singlestorey house is embedded in the field facing southwest towards the valley.

A generous loggia stretching across the whole width of the building mediates between the private interior space and the expansive landscape. The main living spaces open onto the loggia, while the ancillary rooms, further into the house, open onto smaller courtyards. All the courtyards differ in character and provide close contact with nature as opposed to the long-distance views into the valley from the main living quarters.

The building, accessible via a ramp at the northeast of the site, is essentially buried in the landscape. The largest of the four sunken courtyards becomes a working area reminiscent of the farmyards in the Hambleden Valley. The entrance courtyard provides access to the various areas of the house and connects to the land below via the loggia. This opening also separates the guest quarters from the main body of the house. The concrete roof is covered with topsoil from the site and planted with native grass, while the walls are made of brick, left visible both inside and out. The white colour of the bricks and the lime mortar is reminiscent of the chalk beneath the house. On the one hand the house appears as a natural escarpment in the landscape, while on the other it affirms itself as a man-made structure expressed by the robust brick columns placed in front.

CREDITS. DATA SHEET.-

Architects.- David Chipperfield Architects, London.
Director.- Franz Borho.
Collaborators. Project architect.- Patrick Ueberbacher. Landscape architect.- Christopher Bradley-Hole. Structural engineering.- Alan Baxter Associates.
Building contractor.- Spink Construction Ltd.
Services engineering.- Spink Property LLP.
Quantity surveyor.- Spink Property LLP.
Client.- Mike e Maria Spink.
Gross floor area.- 888 sqm.
Dates.- Design phase.- 2009. Construction phase.- 2013.

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Sir David Alan Chipperfield was born in London in 1953 and was raised on a farm in Devon, in the southwest of England. He studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating in 1980. He later worked with Douglas Stephen, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers before founding his own firm, David Chipperfield Architects, in 1985.

The firm has grown to include offices in London, Berlin (1998), Shanghai (2005), Milan (2006), and Santiago de Compostela (2022). His first notable commission was a commercial interior for Issey Miyake in London, which led him to work in Japan. In the United Kingdom, his first significant building was the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, completed in 1997.

Chipperfield has developed over one hundred projects across Asia, Europe, and North America, including civic, cultural, academic, and residential buildings. In Germany, he led the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin (1993–2009) and the construction of the James-Simon-Galerie (1999–2018).

He has been a professor at various universities in Europe and the United States, including the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and Yale University. In 2012, he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 2017, he established the RIA Foundation in Galicia, Spain, dedicated to research on sustainable development in the region.

He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and has been recognized as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). He has received numerous awards, including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2011, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association in 2013, and the Pritzker Prize in 2023. In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2010 he was knighted for his services to architecture, and in 2021 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in the United Kingdom.

Chipperfield's career is distinguished by his focus on the relationship between architecture and its context, as well as his commitment to sustainability and the preservation of architectural heritage.

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Published on: July 10, 2015
Cite: "Fayland House by David Chipperfield Architects" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/fayland-house-david-chipperfield-architects> ISSN 1139-6415
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