Go Niche

EVER WONDERED what the thinking man’s holiday home might look like? Well now we know.

Philosopher and author of The Architecture of HappinessAlain de Botton is the inspiration behind a project aimed at redressing our view of what a holiday rental should look like. People have, he reckons, an unwarranted devotion to the traditional and a fear of the modern.

To combat this, he set up the not-for-profit organisation Living Architecture and commissioned five thoroughly modern holiday homes from some of Europe’s top architects.

First up is The Balancing Barn, a dramatic structure clad in silver tiles which cantilevers dramatically over a steep drop a few miles from the Suffolk coast. Designed by Dutch firm MVRDV, it has a child’s swing hanging from the bottom of one end – just to really wreck your head.

Alternatively, The Shingle House is a holiday home finished in tarred black shingles on the stony beach of Dungeness, near Romney Marsh, designed by Scottish practice NORD Architecture.

The Dune House, just south of the picturesque village of Thorpeness in Suffolk, was designed by Norway’s Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects.

November will see completion of The Long House, on a sandy beach along the north Norfolk coast. It is the work of Michael and Patty Hopkins.

It will be followed by The Secular Retreat, by architect Peter Zumthor, a modern building with the scale of something ecclesiastical in south Devon.

Quirkiest of all, though now with an uncomfortable resonance of the Japanese tsunami, will be A Room For London – a boat “perched as if by retreating floodwaters” on the top of the Southbank Centre, ready for booking in 2012.

* The Balancing Barn costs £740 (around €840) for a four-night break. See living-architecture.co.uk