This project involves the creation of a major new house in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the site of a disused chalk quarry. Excavation ceased in 1998 leaving a redundant industrial site and a visual scar in the landscape. Robert Adam Architects were appointed to draw up a scheme for a single house designed on principles of environmental sustainability. The building combines the very latest thinking in passive solar heating and energy saving systems with a radical reinterpretation of the classical architectural tradition.

There has been a succession of houses associated with the Estate since at least the sixteenth century. A house originally existed adjacent to the village on the site of an ancient priory, with a number of landscape features such as a canal and avenue. A new house was built in 1762 by the architect James Wyatt and a further dwelling by Beeston and Burmester was completed on the same site in 1894, after a devastating fire. The new house will be sited on the axis of a former tree avenue, suggesting an old hunting lodge and representing a link with this historic landscape.

The house incorporates a range of systems to maximse energy efficiency and takes full advantage of the orientation of the site, with all main living spaces located on the south elevation. This facade is almost entirely glazed, maximising passive solar gain. A continuous colonnade forms a gentle arc across the entire lower ground level. Balconies provide shade to each successive floor and two semi-circular projecting bays provide vertical emphasis. Similarly, chimney/ventilation towers and a bracketed eave add visual interest at high level. The building is to be finished in stone render with a slate roof, and other elements will be built of hard chalk or clunch excavated directly from the site. The house and its landscaped grounds will transform this environmentally impoverished site into an attractive and sustainable environment.