Secular Retreat Peter Zumthor House for Living Architecture Launches

Living Architecture Holidays in modern architecture PRESS RELEASE | October 2018 Secular Retreat Peter Zumthor house for Living Architecture launches «It has become rare to be Living Architecture is delighted to at work in the world today. He was able to sit in a house and announce the near completion of awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2009, Secular Retreat, Chivelstone, Devon, and the RIBA Gold Medal in 2013. look out at a beautiful designed by Pritzker prize-winning Renowned buildings he designed landscape where no architect Peter Zumthor. It will be the include the Thermal Baths at Vals in trace of another building architect’s first permanent building Switzerland, the Bruder Klaus Chapel in the UK, and marks the seventh outside Cologne in Germany and the interrupts the lines of the commission in a visionary series of Kolumba Museum in Cologne. He rolling hills. Quietness, houses designed by leading artists and is currently working on designs for contemplation, pure luxury. architects in distinctive, unique sites museums in Basel and Los Angeles, across England. alongside many other commissions. I could not resist to try to The house is situated on a South In 2011 he designed the Serpentine create this house.» Devon hilltop, one mile from the coast Gallery Pavilion, a black painted above the small Hamlet of Chivelstone. structure with internal corridors Peter Zumthor The dramatic layered-concrete and leading to a courtyard that housed a glass design sits horizontally on the garden designed by Piet Oudolf. site, framing stunning views across With Secular Retreat, Peter Zumthor the landscape in all directions. Hand- continues his tradition of creating rammed concrete forms both the thoughtful and timeless architecture. interior and exterior spaces, to give the The house sits in the place of a ruined building a mass and scale characteristic timber house constructed in the 1940’s. of Zumthor’s work. Links to the original site remain, with Peter Zumthor has been described a small hexagonal shaped walled area as one of the greatest architects made out of layers of concrete block, Living Architecture Holidays in modern architecture PRESS RELEASE | October 2018 Secular Retreat and the now 20-metre-tall Monterey and rammed concrete. Throughout, Pine trees planted to shield the original the carefully crafted joinery of doors, house. In character with Zumthor’s inset shelves, wardrobes and kitchen approach, the landscape and garden furniture, all made from apple and are central to the concept of the house. cherry woods, bring a warmth and The garden is designed with the South depth of contrast to the handmade Devon based Rathbone Partnership concrete walls. With sofas, chairs, and comprises the planting of some tables and lights all designed by 5,000 local species of trees and shrubs. Zumthor, Secular Retreat is the Terraces and pathways are made of realisation of his long-held vision for rough-hewn Somerset Blue Lias stone, this Devon hillside. set on edge. Zumthor is renowned for his craftsmanship and expertise in the use of materials, which give his buildings an eternal quality. Creating and maintaining the consistency of concrete to produce the hand-rammed walls, and the engineering of both structure and integration of services throughout the main concrete frame, was delivered by a dedicated group of UK architects, consultants and contractors, who have come together with Zumthor’s team to produce this exemplary building. The house will accommodate up to ten people in five bedrooms and is formed of two separate bedroom wings which lead from the large central open-plan living space. The design and construction required a series of exacting processes to be undertaken, from the careful placing amongst the existing trees, the orientation on the site to make the best of the views and natural light, to the creation of new gardens and outside areas. Internally, the continuous ribbons of layered-concrete are set against stone floors, each slab cut to a different size and shape reflecting the raw material sourced directly from a Somerset quarry. Bedrooms are simple in form – a large carved niche within the concrete fabric, timber Pearwood floors leading to full height and width windows, allowing views onto the gardens and the surrounding valleys. Ensuite bathrooms continue this theme, with a combination of stone Living Architecture Holidays in modern architecture PRESS RELEASE | October 2018 Secular Retreat NOTES TO EDITORS LIVING ARCHITECTURE ATELIER PETER ZUMTHOR PROJECT TEAM Over the last decade, Living Architecture has commissioned carefully designed → Peter Zumthor and thought-provoking domestic → Rainer Weitschies, houses, available to all for holidays Project Architect in the best of modern architecture. → Duarte Brito With a mission to promote, educate → Pascal Berchtold and influence discussion, the houses → Tom Tsapkov provide an immersive architectural → Anna Page experience, created by some of the alongside many more of the most relevant architects and artists in-house team working today. SECULAR RETREAT PROJECT TEAM Secular Retreat completes a visionary → Architect: series that has realised seven landmark Atelier Peter Zumthor projects across England including → Executive Architect (phase 1): the award-winning Dune House in Mole Architects Thorpeness, Suffolk (Jarmund/Vig- → Local architectural advisor (concept snæs Architects); Balancing Barn in phase): David Sheppard Architects PRESS INFORMATION, Thorington, Suffolk (MVRDV); Shingle → Landscape Design and Consultant: INTERVIEWS AND IMAGES House, Dungeness, Kent (NORD); Life The Rathbone Partnership House, Wales (John Pawson); and A For more information and → Construction management: House for Essex (FAT architecture and downloadable images please see Simon Cannon Ltd Grayson Perry). A Room for London www.living-architecture.co.uk/press → Concrete frame (David Kohn Architects with artist Fiona Woodmace Concrete Structures Ltd For further information: Banner) was commissioned by Living → Structural Engineer: [email protected] Architecture and Artangel and installed Jane Wernick Associates on the rooftop of Queen Elizabeth Hall → Quantity Surveyor: for the Olympic year of 2012, where it KM Dimensions remained until February 2018. → Environmental Design Engineers: www.living-architecture.co.uk Transsolar and Integration UK.

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