Management Company for the Private Road Lake Farm Close
Lake Farm Close is a Private Road, managed and maintained by Lake Farm (Longham) Management Company along with a number of shared utilities. The development was designed by Williams Lester Architects of Ringwood in the early 2000's.
Objectives
Lake Farm is located on the main Ringwood Road and A31, within the parish of Longham, and is bounded to the south by an open paddock, to the east by farmland and Dudsbury Golf Course, and to the north by two semi-detached cottages. The site was originally part of a farmstead but had been used for the storage of cars and automotive parts.
The principal objective was to create a development of new houses in a rural setting that did not compete with the historical narrative of the site, but maintained the flavour and essential character of the setting, assimilating its qualities, and that could be easily understood as being built in our time.
The format of the development follows a typically rural arrangement. Each of the buildings maintains the essence of farm structures, reinforcing the symbolic effect of such buildings whilst continuing a traditional use of local materials and construction techniques.
The entrance to the site is alongside the ‘farmhouse’ comprising two semi-detached units. The farmhouse connects to a long barn that forms the boundary along the main road. The barn contains four, three-bed houses and is one and a half storeys in height, with the lower part constructed in brick the upper section in ebony-stained timber boarding. There are no openings within the wall facing the road, thus avoiding domestication of the rural form.
The more dominant farmhouse creates a stop-end to the building sequence, reinforces the vehicular route, and creates an enclosure against the development boundary and village perimeter. The route past the farmhouse leads to an open courtyard formed by three barn-style houses, one cottage and a series of ‘cart-shed’-style garaging. Each building connects to a wall, which then forms an enclosure, and in the barn-style houses forms the lower section of the building. As the upper section of the barns is constructed in timber boarding, the overall impression is of lightweight, non-compressive forms sitting within and upon an arrangement of walls and courtyards.
The shared surface space between and around the buildings is dressed with gravel. All parking is centralized or contained, so that no dedicated parking can dilute the character of the development or encroach upon the space and its qualities.
[Williams Lester Architects, 2015]
Tags: Residence