Inside Meadow House, a modernist-inspired home in the Essex countryside

Meadow House sounds like a dream project. This recent completion near London, a private residence by UK practice Ström Architects, brings together design-conscious, engaged clients; a leafy rural location with just about the right amount of challenges to make it interesting; a healthy budget; and a brief that outlines a home for a family of five, nodding formally and conceptually, to some of the world's finest modernist architecture.

Tour the modernist-inspired Meadow House in rural England

Indeed, when approached, Swedish-born, British-based Magnus Ström and his team in Lymington, Hampshire, were inspired by the clients' appreciation of 20th-century architecture and, in particular, the light pavilions of Philip Johnson (such as the Glass House) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (the Barcelona Pavilion or Illinois' Farnsworth House). They were keen to translate the same attitude into a 21st-century family home in the Essex countryside – and Ström was happy to oblige, taking into account, of course, contemporary and client-specific needs, as well as the requirements of the particular typology. ‘Pavilions are small and often look in all directions, and this doesn't necessarily lend itself to a big house. So we thought, how can we adapt this?' says Ström. ‘If you go back to, for example, the Barcelona Pavilion, there's this idea of using flat surfaces. It's a series of walls and roof planes.'

Taking this as their starting point, the team developed the house's layout in four quadrants, containing, respectively, the entrance and some ancillary spaces, a guest suite with a walled garden, the owners' sleeping quarters, and the main living spaces. The substantial 560 sq m floor plan evolved into a pinwheel formation, with all four wings conceived as low-lying structures with pronounced roof overhangs, which help guide the eye outwards, directing the horizontal lines towards the surrounding green fields. Their roofs gradually step up, creating a hierarchy among internal uses. At the heart of the plan sits a slightly taller volume – the only area in the house with a second level, where a home office is located. Its chimney creates a subtle vertical accent on top of the circulation core. ‘This arrangement also makes the house feel a lot smaller and manageable,' Ström explains.

The project is located in a green belt, which means the team had to be careful with their design so that it didn't become overbearing within the landscape. The house replaced an old, existing structure, so achieving planning permission was possible, but they still had to be careful with the house's massing and context: keeping predominantly to a single level and working with landscape designer Emily Erlam on the grounds were both critical in moving the scheme forward.

The living space ‘pavilion' holds a sequence of indoor and outdoor lounge areas, as well as a dining room and kitchen. It connects diagonally with the more informal, family room at the start of the bedroom wing. ‘It's the children's room,' Ström says. ‘We like to create what we call a broken plan rather than an open plan. It creates connections, but it still allows you to have defined spaces.'

Bespoke cabinetry and hidden storage make sure that everything is kept neat and tidy, allowing the structure's lightness and linearity to come to the fore. Swathes of glazing forge strong connections with the outdoors, while the use of natural materials throughout – such as for the warm, wood-lined ceiling (‘It's a reminder of Brazilian modernism,' says the architect), the walled garden with its own microclimate (a homage to the quintessential English country house) in one of the quadrants, and the green roofs – work hard to help the house feel truly embedded in its leafy surroundings.

Construction is finely tuned, with every single line of tiling and joint, wall and pool edge perfectly aligned – a masterclass in architectural detailing. Meanwhile, the team's hard work on the structure's eco- sensibility, including airtightness, insulation, ventilation and heat recovery systems, meant that in its first year of occupation, more than 70 per cent of the home's total energy demand was met by on-site renewable generation, largely powering itself for most of the year.

‘I often talk about how today, we need to think about luxury differently,' Ström says. ‘It is not about abundance and luxury in objects, but luxury in spaces. It's about how we live and feel in a space. It is about beauty, scale and rhythm.' Meadow House, with its ‘clean and uncompromising design', as the architect describes it, and its low, glass volumes set against the verdant backdrop of the Essex countryside, certainly ticks that box.

stromarchitects.com