‘Design a beautiful house’ is a design brief that is challenging, as much as it is subject to very personal opinion and taste. The Lamerwood site, with its extensive views and abundant landscaping, poses a grand and lush setting for an estate. Tempting it would be to propose an associated architectural gesture in the classical tradition of a grand mansion overlooking the landscape; as man dominating nature. Our approach is different and more subtle. While maintaining the current position of the house with its beautiful views over