An intriguing modern house set within the walled garden of a storied 17th-century estate

'I had always wanted to do something about the rather down-at-heel 1960s bungalow that sat inside the 17th-century walled garden,’ says David Ross, owner and guardian of the Nevill Holt estate in Leicestershire. The entrepreneur was the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse and, more recently, launched the annual Nevill Holt Festival. ‘I wanted a place in which you could enjoy the garden in a different sort of way – a modern building, but one that fitted into its surroundings. Fundamentally, the project was designed to help reimagine that garden.’

The revival of Grade I-listed Nevill Holt Hall has been a labour of love for David over the past two decades. The house and its grounds served as a school for much of the 20th century, becoming institutionalised as well as compromised by various additions. Among these was a bungalow that had once been used by staff at the school. Landscape designer Rupert Golby was entrusted with the revival of the gardens, while the grounds now double as a sculpture park. Having decided to demolish the bungalow, David turned to Woldon Architects to design the Font House, which takes its name from a Renaissance stone font in the grounds, and is protected and partially enclosed by the walled garden that wraps around it.

The sense of harmony between the interior and exterior is one of the greatest delights of the new building, as well as its feeling of tranquillity. ‘We developed a very collaborative partnership with Rupert, because it is so much about the relationship with the land-scape,’ explains architect Robert Gluckman, who designed the house alongside his Woldon Architects partner and fellow director Tom Smith. ‘In the early stages, we developed a few options with some input from Rupert, including the water pools in front of the house, which became a feature. We decided on a symmetrical plan for a low pavilion tied to the surroundings. It was important that the house sat quite subtly within the walled garden.’

The new building floats more or less on the footprint of the former dilapidated bungalow, looking out upon its verdant setting. This area of the grounds is at a slightly lower level to the main gardens and the house itself, creating a natural amphitheatre and ensuring a welcome degree of privacy for visiting friends and guests, particularly during the festival, when the pavilion comes into its own as a place for performers to stay.

For the floor plan, the architects embraced the idea of a generously scaled, open-plan room with sitting and dining areas that connect with the adjoining terraces. There are two bedrooms at either end of the house, while the kitchen and bathrooms are situated to the rear, where they open onto the private courtyard positioned between the house and the boundary wall. The archi-tects chose glazing and insulation that take the house towards Passivhaus standards in terms of energy performance, while a discreetly positioned air-source heat pump feeds the underfloor heating. When it came to materials, they opted for local iron-stone for the exteriors, arranged in a carefully curated pattern of textural finishes; inside, there are York flagstones within the principal areas and oak floors in the bedrooms.