Modernist home in UK conservation area celebrates nature
A rural house design by Scott Donald Architecture brings dark forms and modernist sophistication to a tree-filled site

Daniel Hopkinson - Photography
When a new client approached Scott Donald Architecture, they came with a rare opportunity; a residential design commission without a specific brief, leaving the style and size of the project completely open and up to the architects. The site, an acre of greenery filled with protected trees in a rural area of central England, made the perfect setting for a new, dramatic, modernist-inspired house design.
The project, set in the Rolleston on Dove Conservation Area, near Burton upon Trent, UK, spans 550 sq m across two floors. The ground level hosts living spaces and a fitness suite, while four bedrooms are located upstairs.
The internal arrangement was carefully planned, and the house was designed to be very extroverted, wrapped in glazing, especially on the ground floor, and connecting with the landscape and its architectural gardens at every turn. The elegant openings, provided by Sky-Frame, populate an otherwise fairly blank façade, which is minimalist and clad in dark render and black slate.
Inside, the house contains clean, modern interiors furnished tastefully and peppered with the owner's personal art collection. The exterior's dark materials are exchanged for lighter ones inside, giving the space a more gallery-like feel. A mezzanine games room adds more space for family entertaining, while giving an overview of the living spaces below.
The house is semi-concealed in the mature trees, but its driveway and garage can be seen from the street, peeking out of the greenery. The main entrance, featuring a door covered in black powder-coated metal, reveals little about what lies within, but hints at the design sophistication of the house. However, ‘the solid ground-bearing mass of the front elevation is in stark contrast to the design at the back’, say the architects.
‘We wanted the connectivity and views to the garden to be unencumbered. For there to be effectively nothing between inside and out. To achieve this we had to make sure there was no visible structure along this 25m glazed line. All of the structure is pulled deep into the plan – it’s out of sight, invisible.'
INFORMATION
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
The artistry of Japanese wine
Fine wine from Japan may not yet register highly on the radars of most oenophiles, but for those who know, it's a hugely rewarding and rich tapestry of flavour. Drinks expert, Neil Ridley visits London's Luna Omakase for the launch of a new dedicated Japanese wine pairing menu
-
In Los Angeles, Darling doesn’t want to be your average dinner spot
Vinyl, live-fire cooking, and California’s finest ingredients come together in this immersive new concept from a celebrated Southern chef
-
Ashlyn, the quietly romantic New York label from a Yohji Yamamoto alumna
The focus of our latest Uprising column, Seoul-born Ashlyn Park worked for fashion greats before starting her own label in 2020. Showing her S/S 2026 collection at NYFW yesterday, she talks to Wallpaper* about marrying Japanese influences with the romance of Parisian savoir-faire
-
The new 2025 London Open House Festival tours to book
2025 London Open House launches this weekend, running 13-21 September; here, we celebrate the newcomers in the residential realm, flagging the exciting additions to the festival's growing home tour programme
-
The wait is over – the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 shortlist is here
The restored home of Big Ben, creative housing for different needs, and a centre for medical innovation – the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 shortlist has just been announced, and its six entries are as diverse as they can be
-
Slides, clouds and a box of presents: it’s the Dulwich Picture Gallery’s quirky new pavilion
At the Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London, ArtPlay Pavilion by Carmody Groarke and a rich Sculpture Garden open, fusing culture and fun for young audiences
-
Bay House brings restrained modern forms and low-energy design to the Devon coast
A house with heart, McLean Quinlan’s Bay House is a sizeable seaside property that works with the landscape to mitigate impact and maximise views of the sea
-
A whopping 92% of this slick London office fit-out came from reused materials
Could PLP Architecture's new workspace provide a new model for circularity?
-
Meet the landscape studio reviving the eco-brutalist Barbican Conservatory
London-based Harris Bugg Studio is working on refreshing the Barbican Conservatory as part of the brutalist icon's ongoing renewal; we meet the landscape designers to find out more
-
A refreshed Victorian home in London is soft, elegant and primed for hosting
Sobremesa house by architects Studio McW shows off its renovation and extension, designed for entertaining
-
15 years of Assemble, the community-driven British architecture collective
Rich in information and visuals, 'Assemble: Building Collective' is a new book celebrating the Turner Prize-winning architecture collective, its community-driven hits and its challenges