The project is simultaneously a single volume, a public space, and an ensemble of houses, which announce the larger development beyond. Its clustered form echoes the arrangements of houses around open spaces, which will distinguish Newlands, whilst also recalling the existing farm buildings.  The project defines an extended threshold of entry to the development. When the building is open, the plan directs the visitor but allows them to meander through or over it, as part of a journey to the houses they have come to see. A small house for a security guard at the entrance to the site plays a visual game, its scale seemingly equivalent to the larger ensemble, when one arrives at the front gate.

The House is approached on a boardwalk, which peels off from the road. It emerges from a new field of crops; enjoying their smell, their sound and the horizon they establish. The forms of the building are archetypal and familiar, a language of domesticity. At the same time, their scale and reductive simplicity places them ambivalently between the models they contain and the future buildings that those models represent.

This quality is reinforced by the material and method of fabrication, utilising large-scale solid timber components with a painted exterior finish. The principal elements could be fabricated off-site and delivered as a series of pieces, allowing the building to be disassembled and relocated in the future.

This simplified tectonic language offers a strong image for the project. As one circles the Houses, their shape will move from figuration to abstraction and back again. The use of paint and the possibilities for digital routing of the surface, offer opportunities for conversations about colour and signage, which might change over time.

Arriving at the building, a generous open stair within a pitched roof form ascends to roof level, offering a view across the development. A wide gate, open during the day, announces the entrance to the interior. Internally, the space is open and generous. The three small houses are connected by a deeply coffered timber ceiling, offering a large space for meetings and presentations. One house contains the ancillary functions of kitchen and accessible wc. The second holds the stair and platform lift, allowing access to the rooftop belvedere. The third defines a space for the models and wall display. The pitched roof forms of the last two animate and articulate the interior as a series of discrete but flowing spaces. Large windows direct the gaze to the development beyond. At the top of the internal stair a small viewing room allows a view across the rising topography of the Common.

The timber construction is generally left exposed on the interior but each house is lined in William Morris wallpaper. This playful moment scales and domesticises these spaces, reinforcing the concern within the Newlands Development’s for quality and tradition. The wallpaper pattern chosen is the one that was used as the lining papers for Hermann Muthesius’ seminal book on English domestic architecture, Das Englische Haus.