Elegantly set in the beautiful East Anglian landscape, on the border of a working farm in Suffolk (UK), the Pavilion House by Norm Architects is a real inside-out construction. The shapes and materials of the interior all have tranquility and simplicity and every room offers a different glimpse of the outside. The architecture has a certain humility; it acknowledges that the big-ticket item in the setting is indeed the countryside; it doesn’t try to compete with it, but frames it instead.
The design of the house is all about transparency; nature becomes an integral part of the interior. With a delicate and minimized steel construction, wooden window frames, and vertical cladding in local larch that corresponds with the existing structures on the site, there is a harmonious meeting between old and new buildings. The exterior part of the windows and fascia board of the roof in dark carbon grey metal make the steel as subtle and discrete as possible so that the wooden character of the house becomes the dominant expression.
The use of polished concrete adds a tactile sensation to the room while acting as a stimulating contrast to the warm elements of wood. Pavilion House cannot be thought of outside of the context of the surrounding countryside and the furnishings, as a result, follow suit. The feeling of the space is one of tranquility, and it has therefore been important that the entirety of the interior plays a key role in tying together the contextual and spatial characteristics of the project.