Chilterns Villa by Lazzarini Pickering Architetti
Designed in 2012 by Lazzarini Pickering Architetti, this amazing modern villa is situated in the countryside between London and Oxford.
Description by Lazzarini Pickering Architetti
For Lazzarini Pickering the act of listening to context marks an approach to design that takes form in direct relation to the particular qualities of a site and its history. This condition is then confronted with an attentive reflection on the needs expressed by the client.
From this point of view, the new villa completed by office in 2012 in the countryside between London and Oxford, is exemplary. The fruit of the demolition and reconstruction of an early twentieth century home, surrounded by lawns, forests and typical English cottages, it establishes an effective dialogue between the traditional and the contemporary.
As with many other works by the office, the project operates at the scale of architecture and that of the landscape: the entrance to the home is influenced by a typical arrangement of classical villas, with a rotunda delimited by hedges. The structure of the house, wrapped in a mantle of grass, is situated at a lower level, almost hidden within its surroundings. It consists of two parallelepipeds facing in different directions, connected by a square central volume that serves as a hinge and an intimate space of gathering.
The entire concept pursues an idea of weightlessness. The two rectangular volumes, clearly inspired by the work of Mies van der Rohe, extend into the surrounding park as a structure of glass and steel. The desired effect is one of osmosis between interior and exterior and a reciprocal play of influences, transparencies and allusions. Important cantilevers make the house appear to hover above the ground.
Photography by Matteo Piazza
Visit Lazzarini Pickering Architetti
- by Matt Watts
