Here We Are Home at Last: The Architecture of Nithurst traces the design and making of one of Britain's most decorated new-build houses — a South Downs residence that reconciles Renaissance spatial logic with the demands of contemporary domestic life.
About This Book
Nithurst is architect Adam Richards's own home, built in the South Downs National Park and recognised with multiple RIBA Awards, shortlisted for the Mies van der Rohe Award, and named Wallpaper* Magazine's Best New House of 2020. What distinguishes this monograph from a standard project survey is its structure: rather than a single authorial voice, the book assembles thematic essays from specialists across film, architectural history, interiors, and art. Geoff Dyer, Takero Shimazaki, Jeremy Musson, and Corinna Dean each interrogate a different dimension of the work, while Richards himself provides a detailed analytical narrative. The result is a layered account of a house where Palladian planning, Vanbrugh's massing, and the cinematic atmosphere of Tarkovsky coexist within a single built work.
Key Features
- 144 pages of colour photography, architectural drawings, and thematic essays
- Essays by Geoff Dyer, Takero Shimazaki, Jeremy Musson, and Corinna Dean
- Detailed analytical narrative by architect Adam Richards
- Published by Lund Humphries, 2020
What You'll Discover
- How Renaissance precedents — including Palladio's plan for the Villa Barbaro — were translated into a 21st-century domestic brief
- The range of cultural and artistic references informing the design, from Vanbrugh's English Baroque to the cinematography of Andrei Tarkovsky
- How the house achieves a quality of feeling simultaneously ancient and contemporary, and the architectural decisions that produce that effect
- The experience of architect-as-client: Richards's own account of designing, commissioning, and inhabiting the house he built for his family
About the Author
Adam Richards is the architect of Nithurst, which he designed as his own family home in the South Downs National Park. The house received multiple RIBA Awards and was shortlisted for the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture/Mies van der Rohe Award.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 144
- Dimensions: 20.64 x 1.59 x 31.12 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781848227002
- Publisher: Lund Humphries
- Publication Date: 2020
Perfect For: Architects and students interested in the relationship between historical precedent and contemporary residential design, and readers drawn to architect-designed houses where cultural reference is as structurally important as construction.