Norfolk, United Kingdom
Tonkin Liu has breathed new life into a historic rural structure—a ruined 11th-century Priory, a ruin Bailey gate, and a ruined steel Water Tower—to create a truly unique family home in the village of Castle Acre—home to a ruined Norman Castle.
The Water Tower had been relocated from a local airfield after the war and had become a popular landmark with villagers, many of whom had climbed it during their youth. Bidding against scrap metal dealers the tower was bought by the client in an auction.
As part of the living history of the village, the disused structure’s preservation and reuse as home drew great support from the local community.
The steel tank has become a living room, the steel frame has been infilled to provide sleeping chambers with a ground floor entrance and recreation area and a new tower has been added for access and to stabilize the delicate structure that swayed in the hilltop wind.
The rusty panelized steel tank has been retained and transformed with a panoramic window.
Below the tank, the existing steel frame structure is infilled with a prefabricated cross-laminated timber structure.
The timber cube-like sleeping chambers are fully glazed on the north elevation to minimize light pollution to the village to the south and to overlook a vast field of barley that becomes a vast rural phenomenon as it is seen from above as it sways in the wind.
The tall chambers that correspond to the frame’s proportions also contain a washroom and wardrobe with a mezzanine over.
Small windows to the east and west provide cross ventilation and castle-like observation.
A bridge connects the sleep chambers to the cross-laminated stair tower.
The bridge is fully glazed to its sides to connect the occupants to the treetops of the line of trees that extend to the east and west.
Above and below the ribbon window steel trusses works in tandem with the existing steel panels to open the tank to an expansive view of the flat horizon.
The support for the upper trussed panel is disguised by the frames of the opening portions of the ribbon window.
A single skylight surrounded by a mirror will bring the light from every direction into the living-dining and cooking space.
Project: Water Tower House
Architects: Tonkin Liu
Structural Engineers: Rodrigues Associates
General Contractor: MNB Services
Client: Private
Photographers: Dennis Pedersen and Mike Tonkin
