Building your own home is a major undertaking, not least in the initial design stage. From finding the right plot of land to getting planning permission, there are many hurdles to be overcome – pandemic aside.
But if you’ve set your heart on building your dream home in 2021, we’ve found five architect-designed houses that are stuck on the drawing board, waiting to be built. Their designers have done a lot of the leg work already but could you finally make them a reality?
Mines Park by 6A Architects
Where: Cambridgeshire, UK
Who: 6A Architects
How much: £3m (plot with planning) via The Modern House
Mines Park is a plot of 100 acres with planning permission to build a modern country mansion designed by Tom Emerson of 6A Architects. The 12,000 sq ft structure reinterprets traditional 18th-century timber-framed English country houses and would be built with an exposed oak structure and hempcrete across four levels.
Emerson’s design has minimal internal divisions to maximise flexibility, with a double-height living room at one end, and a kitchen and dining area at the others. Bedrooms (with their own terraces and external courtyards) fill the upper levels to capture views across the surrounding fields and woods.
The lower ground floor will house a swimming pool, gym, spa, staff accommodation and underground parking. Planning also includes two detached staff cottages, arranged across a central courtyard, which offer a further 2,900 sq ft of accommodation.
Orchards, a walled kitchen garden, greenhouse and family garden will surround the development.
Villa Wolfspfad
Where: Bad Soden, Frankfurt
Who: Rainger Görg Architekten
How much: €1.6m (without development) via Fantastic Frank
Frankfurt is the business capital of Germany with a rich cultural scene and historic architecture to boot. This modern home, designed by Rainer Görg Architekten and marketed by Fantastic Frank, draws on Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus school of thought.
Villa Wolfspfad, in the commuter town of Bad Soden, is a low slung, boxy volume. Its main floor houses communal living spaces, set around an open atrium planted with trees and framed by floor-to-ceiling glass. The flowing space boasts an in-house bar, open fireplace and lounge area.
Three bedrooms fill the garden level, while the standout feature is an enormous roof terrace with southern exposure and views as far as Frankfurt. Villa Wolfspfad is marketed at the city’s business elite and has separate guest accommodation for an au pair and a full wine cellar in the basement.
The Garden House II
Where: Northamptonshire, UK
Who: Clive Chapman Architects
How much: £495,000 (freehold, land only) via The Modern House
Planning permission has been granted for a 4,000 sq ft Passivhaus in the village of Hellidon, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire in England, designed by Clive Chapman Architects.
The L-shaped courtyard home will be built on a plot bordering a converted Victorian boarding school, and its partly sunken design will unfurl around a central pond.
Wings will brand off a central entrance to separate the communal living room and kitchen from the bedrooms. However, all will look onto the stepped gardens, inspired by the work of Gertrude Jekyll, a Victorian horticulturist. They are designed to reintegrate with the landscape and reintroduce the kitchen garden the building replaces.
Hellidon Village is built with blockstone and lime-mortar – materials that will also be used across the single-storey Garden House’s facade to create synergy with its surroundings.
Starburst House
Where: California, USA
Who: Whitaker Studio
How much: $3.5m Via Engel & Voelkers
This desert rose has an unorthodox and futuristic design that ‘unfurls’ from a central point with petal-like rooms and white-washed interiors reminiscent of a space station. The volumes of Starburst House have glazed ends that frame views of around 90 acres of arid landscape outside the Joshua Tree National Park in California. And though it looks pretty wacky, it will be built using 21 shipping containers which explain the unusual floor plan.
Whitaker Studio originally designed Starburst House for film producer Chris Hanley back in 2017.
Construction is set to begin in Monument Manor around mid-2021, and there’s scope for the buyer to customise finishes and fixtures inside the Joshua Tree property.
Hawks Nest
Where: Andros, Greece
Who: The Andros Architects
How much: POA (with permit) direct
Designer-developers, The Andros Architects, invite you to build your own island idyll on Andros, Greece.
The craggy hilltop home seeks to blend into the rocky terrain, with staggered living spaces dug into the sloping plot to capture western views of the Aegean Sea from its infinity pool and terraces, while walls are built using local stone.
Construction of Hawk’s Nest was originally set to commence at the end of 2019/early 2020 but was waylaid by the pandemic, meaning it is still for sale with a permit.
