High Park Farm, Lincolnshire

This new house will occupy a prominent position within and existing farm, set in the rolling Lincolnshire landscape, in the tradition of the English country house. The scheme was developed within the auspices of Planning Policy Statement 7: Sustainable Development in Rural Areas, which demands 'truly outstanding and ground-breaking' proposals, which 'raise standards of design more generally in rural areas'.

In response to this iconic building, by architect Louise Cooper, we devised a framework - both philosophical and physical - for the landscape immediately around the house and beyond.

The scheme includes areas where man sensitively dominates nature, controlling it for aesthetics and ornamentation; while others establish a symbiotic relationship between man and his environment - species and habitats are tended for the harvest they offer.

The house has been designed to be autonomous, applying principles under-pinning the Hockerton Housing Project to a single large dwelling and its setting. However, a wider objective is to work with regional house-builders to apply the principles of the truly autonomous house to the creation of multi-unit developments.