Modular Treehouse Concept

"An isolated new house in the countryside may also exceptionally be justified if it is clearly of the highest quality, is truly outstanding in terms of its architecture and landscape design, and would significantly enhance its immediate setting and wider surroundings. Proposals for such development would need to demonstrate that proper account had been taken of the defining characteristics of the local area, including local or regional building traditions and materials. This means that each generation would have the opportunity to add to the tradition of the Country House which has done so much to enhance the English countryside."

In other words, if it's good enough, normal restrictions do not apply. This very 'popular-at-the-time' statement was, according to most architects, a lifeline to the dreams and passions of those in pursuit of creating a perfect country retreat. But since Mr Gummer's edict very few contemporary country houses have been built.

This is not due to a shortage of potential cash-rich clients willing to spend for a better way of living but to a lack of suitable land available. Even planning authorities proved to be uncomfortable about having to judge what constitutes superlative architecture and found it easier just to say 'no'.

The innovative English country house has been almost extinct since the 1930's. Many observers believed the building type had come to its natural end with the Second World War and the meltdown of the traditional class structure.

The 1990's saw very few modern examples but there was a flicker of hope with one example designed in 1998 by architects Future Systems. The home, nicknamed the 'Teletubby House', looks like a space ship that has hit earth with such a force that it embedded itself in the cliff-top landscape of the Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales.

Today, the much-publicised 'Grafton New Hall' or 'Giant Starfish' near Chester, designed by the architects Ushida Findlay, heavily relies on acres of beautiful EnglishCountryside in order to spread it wings of over 2,200 square metres of accommodation. This design is far from the reach of the typical country home purchaser with needs of up to only 3 or 4 bedrooms. However, the outline planning permission granted for Grafton New Hall is an encouraging sign to others hoping to qualify under PPG7. But does a house have to be so large in order to qualify? The decisions of some planning authorities indicate that they think so, while PPG7 itself and statements by John Gummer also suggest that large houses are precisely what the legislators wanted to encourage. This has led to accusations of elitism and the current government to regard PPG7 as ‘inconsistent with the priority for affordable rural housing’.

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