Image: Hollaway Architects Upper Maxsted Farm ©Hufton+Crow
Hollaway Studio’s award-winning design for Upper Maxted, near Stelling Minnis can be regarded as their client’s paean to architecture and has been inspired by the very ground it sits on.
The extension acts as a surprisingly complimentary addition to the more traditional 18thCentury Grade 2 listed farmhouse and setting while the design represents a very different architectural aesthetic in this idyllic pastoral setting.
The intricate extension is almost invisible from the front of the original house, with only small glimpses of the Corten roof line suggesting that a contemporary element exists hidden behind.
The Corten constructing the façades of the extension perfectly match the existing house brick and tiles. This use of Corten has been inspired, rather uniquely, by the natural iron ore deposits found in the meadow grassed field right beside the house.
Iron ore stone has been used at the foot of the Corten walls bordering the extension and meadow grass which grows all the way up to the concrete path around the extension, therefore, unifying the building and the landscape.
The RIBA Awards Jury described it as follows: “Upper Maxted is a Grade II listed farmhouse in Shepway, Kent. Dating from 1739 but clearly with earlier origins, it is located in somewhat isolated surroundings, adjacent to rolling fields and with wildflower meadows to the rear.
“The client’s brief required the rethinking of the ad-hoc extensions that had accumulated on the rear façade of the original house and the provision of a modern family kitchen and dining space.”
Hollaway Studio worked closely throughout with the clients who had well-formulated ideas of how they wanted the extension to look in terms of clarity and boldness while retaining the historical integrity of the original site. As they describe it, the practice ‘turned their ideas into fireworks’.