Renowned British magazine The Architectural Review annually hosts a competition where it selects the best projects in housing, education, and culture from hundreds of submissions worldwide. At the end of June, the jury announced the results, which included editor-in-chief Christine Murray, main curator of the MAXXI museum in Rome Pippo Ciorra, and a pair of architects Adam Caruso and Sofía von Ellrichshausen. The winner of this year's competition is the Fayland family house located in the hilly landscape of the Chiltern Hills between the towns of Skrimett and Hambleden in Oxfordshire County in southeastern England. The single-story structure, designed for real estate agent Mike Spink, was created by London architect David Chipperfield and landscape architect Christopher Bradley-Hole. The house sits on a twenty-hectare property where an agricultural estate from the early last century once stood, which had to give way to Chipperfield's design of a 'contemporary English country house'. The dignified structure is set on a massive plinth. The sixty-meter facade is dominated by a loggia with eleven columns. Behind it, covering a total area of 888 square meters, are living spaces with unique views of the landscape. The approach to the house is from the back to an internal courtyard, where, in addition to the main entrance, there are also side entrances to the gym, storage areas, guest quarters, and a garage for four cars. Quality materials (wooden doors, stone floors, light masonry) do not strive for immediate astonishment of visitors. Likewise, one notices the breathtaking view of the landscape rather than spatial generosity.
