The Country House Ideal, Recent Work by ADAM Architecture is a survey of country houses designed by the Winchester-based ADAM Architecture.  It places the country house in its rich historical context and explores the way in which ADAM Architecture – a practice of five directors, each with a distinct architectural personality – uses historical precedents, techniques and materials to design country houses for modern times.

A new Queen Anne-style wing of East Hoe Manor in Hampshire provides a sympathetic extension to the eighteenth century original.

East Hoe: the new exposed timber-framed roof structure of the family kitchen and sitting room.

Penny Lane Farm in Hampshire has a strong Arts & Crafts character, with tall chimneys, timber dormers and steeply-pitched clay-tiled roofs.

Penny Lane Farm: the long, stone-flagged hallway is divided by square oak columns and is used as both a picture gallery and a room for occasional shoot lunches.

Wudston House in Wiltshire feels like one of the most Italian of the Palladian-inspired houses designed by George Saumarez Smith.

Wudston: the principal overmantel of the sala, which is used for dining and receptions. You can just see the panels of plasterwork by Geoffrey Preston, specially commissioned for this house.

ADAM Architecture – a practice of five directors: Robert Adam, Nigel Anderson, Paul Hanvey, Hugh Petter and George Saumarez Smith – is known for its diverse portfolio and its emphasis on traditional building skills, and its country houses are among the practice’s most admired work.  The quantity of work illustrated in this book is impressive, as is the variety of styles, which are featured in the four main chapters: Anglo-Classical, Rural Romantics, Palladian and Neoclassical. As Jeremy Musson explains, the houses reveal the country house ideal in a modern world, where energy conservation, technology and sustainability are high on the list of prerequisites, along with flexible family rooms rather than ballrooms and service wings.

All images  are copyright Paul Barker, as well as being taken from ‘The Country House Ideal: Recent Work by ADAM Architecture‘ by Jeremy Musson  (Merrell Publishers £40 www.merrellpublishers.com).