The Long House

The North Norfolk coast is famous for its sandy beaches, its fine flint churches and its huge skies. On the edge of the quiet village of Cockthorpe, between Wells-Next-the-Sea and Blakeney, Living Architecture has turned to two of the great modernists of British architecture, Sir Michael and Lady Patty Hopkins.

Their Long House gives out on to the flat, almost prairie-like expanses of the Norfolk landscape and on the upper story, affords one views over the inlets, saltmarshes and creeks of the North Sea coast. The house is distinctive for its massive and traditionally crafted flint wall, which references the ancient churches and barns of the area.

Yet, as in so many of the Hopkins' later works, a respect for old-fashioned craft is allied to a fascination with high technology, both for its utility and its sheer beauty. The Long House has a great medieval-style hall in its centre and is capped with a vast timber roof, reinforced with steel cabling and trusses assembled into an intricate sculptural construction. 

In this traditional English holiday region, the Hopkins' have created a house singularly responsive to local materials and vernacular forms - and inspired by the best lessons of Modernism.

The Long House sleeps 10 people, and was completed in Dec 2011. See more images and find out more about the accommodation and what's included. More photos will be added later this month.

Click here for availability for holidays in 2012.

To watch a video of Michael and Patty Hopkins being interviewed about The Long House, click here.