A Place in the Country
One of the widely recognised positive outcomes of the current pandemic is the way that people have come to enjoy and value the gift of personal time. We have accepted that remote working is a genuinely viable option and that the primary family home can be based further afield with a longer but more occasional commute into London or the office.
Camp End Manor, enjoying views all over Surrey
Over the years, Lees Associates have enjoyed helping clients realise their personal dreams and hobbies in a spacious and beautiful countryside setting. Riding stables, kitchen gardens, wellness studios, swimming pools and even an 18 hole golf course have formed part of our brief, and the contrast to designing in London makes us properly appreciate the opportunities and luxury that space can offer.
Birch Grove, with its own private 18 hole golf course
The need and ability to live sustainably is becoming more and more popular; we designed our first waste-water-filtering reed bed in 2003 and installed our first biomass boiler, running solely off the estate’s annual coppice yield, in 2007. The desire to live more healthily is the current trend, with not just pools, spas and gyms but meditation rooms and vitamin C showers high on the list. A naturally restorative rural location may negate the need for a circadian lighting programme, which is another one on the shopping list for London luxury fit-outs these days.
Gaywood Farm, East Sussex, with its own water-filtering reed bed
It is a particular treat to be entrusted to design to meet a client’s passion, a topic on which they can usually give an enthusiastic and detailed brief! To see the enjoyment of the realisation of these projects is especially satisfying. We are delighted that our successful reed bed wetland has since become a triathlon training pool too!.
Dixton Manor, Cotswolds, complete with biomass boiler that burns wood chippings produced within the estate
We have also enjoyed restoring properties of historical note such as the 16th century pile, Dixton Manor in Gloucestershire; Birch Grove, the important 1920s East Sussex home of former prime minister, Harold Macmillan; and rambling farm buildings with a Tudor origin in West Sussex. We have also been lucky enough to design a large dacha, nestling amongst the birch trees in a forest outside of Moscow, and a more formal new-build home, positioned on a hill-top and enjoying an extraordinary Surrey view. We particularly enjoy designing and building with a wider palette of materials than we work with on our central London projects, such as flint walls, green oak framework or timber shingles. Our clients have been happy for us to source materials locally or even reuse or restore existing structures. Restoring Tudor framed walls and an Art Deco glazed laylight, re-laying historic reclaimed timber floors and specifying traditional lime-based mortars and paints have been a particular joy.
A Tudor home, sensitively restored
The country home is usually a more personal, more relaxed and more creative expression of the owner’s psyche. We have taken as much pleasure in delivering spectacular homes for entertaining as we have comfortable, luxurious retreats in which to get back to nature and rest the mind. It is vital for any client that the journey towards realising their dream is a pleasurable one, ensuring that none of the process is tainted by any of the stressful experiences usually associated with construction, and we are proud of our successful record in shaping these positive experiences. We’d love to join you on the journey to your dream country home, blow away the cobwebs and help you to enjoy the view.
Camp End Manor’s spectacular view