Architect
Aldington and Craig
Developer
Peter Carrington
Contractor
H J and A Wright Ltd
Planning Authority
H J and A Wright Ltd
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From the late 1950s onwards the issue of village housing infill had fascinated English architects. How could one make an addition to an established pattern of vernacular architecture without falling into the trap of coy pastiche? Tayler and Green had made an interesting contribution with their work for local authorities in Norfolk (Awards 1950 to 1976), but convincing models were otherwise few and far between.
In the mid 1970s, Peter Carrington purchased a site opposite his own house, in order to provide high quality housing for rent by village residents. It was left to the architects to suggest the size and number of houses: their brief was to produce a scheme that was genuinely part of the village, and which future generations would go out of their way to look at.
Aldington and Craig met the challenge with a scheme which at once summarises a whole slew of previous thinking, and then firmly draws a line under it with a masterly resolution of various components into an utterly convincing statement. From then on, no-one who attempted a similar development could fail to be aware of the precedent set, and plead ignorance for reinventing the wheel.
Six houses - all but one single storey - share two common plans, and a common system of interlocking monopitch roofs enclosing spaces which extend through fully glazed openings to partly covered yards. The roofs recall John Voelcker's farm projects, the covered yards the Smithsons' Sugden House, and the curved yard walls and capped chimneys Sandy Wilson's Wyton Home Farm estate.
But the transparency between interior and exterior, the simple structural logic of the plans, the massing of the dwellings, and the way the whole complex nestles snugly into the landscape is unique. No wonder that elements of this scheme can be seen to this very day with a regular winner of a Housing Design Award acknowledging them as a key inspiration while one of the judges lives in a tribute house. A good wine travels well.