The name of the villa - Secular Retreat - can be translated as "secular hermitage", that is, a secular analogue of religious practice: such forms of spiritual life are of great interest to the founder of the Living Architecture program, philosopher Alain de Botton. Zumthor's work in Devon, a mile off the coast, is the eighth completion of this program, offering everyone the opportunity to spend a few days in a home - a serious piece of modern architecture. To this end, de Botton invited domestic and foreign architects to cooperate, who implemented villas for rent in the picturesque parts of the country. The goal of the program is to show the general public in practice that the latest architecture is beautiful and comfortable for life, and that it fits into the landscape just as well as the Palladian palaces.
Living Architecture's portfolio includes a variety of projects, from
“Balancing Barn” MVRDV to the house-boat on the roof of a concert hall in London (the only city object in the program, invented for the Olympics and dismantled in February 2018) and works by Grayson Perry. Therefore, the construction of Zumthor there is far from the most unusual, however - thanks to the name of the architect - very expected (since 2009!). You can book a vacation there now - for the next, 2019.
According to Zumthor, the ability to see only nature and no structures from the windows of the house, as well as silence and freedom for thought, have become "pure luxury" these days, and therefore he could not refuse the customers from Living Architecture. A villa near the Devonian village of Chivelstone became his first permanent construction in Great Britain (the first temporary was
summer pavilion of the Serpentine Gallery 2011 in London). It was erected on the top of a hill, on the site of a ruined wooden house of the 1940s, under the canopy of the 20-meter pine trees that once hid it (special efforts were made during the design and construction to preserve them).
The walls of hand-rammed concrete are typical of the works of Peter Zumthor; they define the appearance of the building and inside. The open plan public area floors are made of limestone - blue lias from Somerset, and are also used for outdoor walkways and terraces, as well as bathroom cladding. The two wings, which house five bedrooms for a total of ten people, have pear wood floors. For built-in furniture, doors, etc. used cherry and apple tree. As with many other Living Architecture projects, the author of the house project also designed some of the furnishings - tables, sofas, chairs and lamps.
The landscaping was carried out by the local bureau Rathbone Partnership, which planted trees and shrubs in the garden typical of South Devon.
