Modern rural living – how to create a sustainable design that respects the rural landscape
Ian Armstrong, Founder/Director ARCO₂ Architecture speaks to BUILD IT magazine about the key considerations when building a modern country home.
https://builditlive.co.uk/build-it-magazine/
How can you create a design that respects the rural surrounding landscape?
At ARCO₂, every design begins with a careful and considered analysis of the site, its landscape, and its locality. We believe that a modern country home should not just sit within the landscape, but become part of it. Each building is uniquely crafted to respond to its context — from topography and views to local character and heritage — resulting in a home that could only belong to that place. By blurring the threshold between indoors and outdoors, we ensure homes feel truly connected to their setting, extending living spaces out into gardens, terraces, and the wider landscape.
Above Image: Waterhouse https://www.arco2.co.uk/sustainable-architecture-projects/waterhouse/
How can a design effortlessly blend modern and traditional elements?
Respecting local character is central to blending modern and traditional design. By studying the architectural language and materials of the area, we identify opportunities to reinterpret traditional forms and finishes in a contemporary way. At ARCO₂, we often take vernacular materials — such as stone, slate, or timber — and use them with modern detailing. Green roofs are another way we soften contemporary architecture into the rural landscape, creating biodiversity benefits and visually anchoring buildings in their setting. This palette is typical of Cornwall, but naturally varies across the country depending on local traditions and landscape character. The result is a building that feels both rooted in place and distinctly of its time.
How can natural materials be used externally and internally to create a rural design?
Rural architecture has always been shaped by local, natural materials — stone, timber, render, slate — and more recently, robust agricultural claddings such as profiled metal. We embrace this palette while also introducing contemporary equivalents like zinc, aluminium, or copper where appropriate. Continuity between inside and out is key: carrying external materials through into interiors helps create seamless connections. This approach not only strengthens design continuity but also leads the eye outside, enhancing the sense of bringing the outside in and extending internal living into outdoor spaces.
Above image: Ladybird Farm https://www.arco2.co.uk/sustainable-architecture-projects/ladybird-farm-2/
Can a modern country home be energy efficient and sustainable?
Absolutely. For us, sustainability is inseparable from design. Good design is site-led, with sustainability woven into the concept from the outset — not as an afterthought. By considering orientation, form, materials, and building performance early on, we create homes that are not only beautiful and contextually sensitive, but also highly efficient, comfortable, and healthy to live in. This approach ensures that sustainability enhances, rather than compromises, the architecture.
How does the internal design alter for a country lifestyle?
Designing for rural living means thinking carefully about how people want to live, not just how they live today. This often includes practical spaces — boot rooms, utility rooms, surf or dog rooms — but it also means celebrating connection with nature. Framing views of the sky, trees, and wider landscape, and creating seamless flows between indoors and outdoors, enriches daily life. Extending the home into the garden with terraces, sheltered courtyards, or outdoor kitchens allows modern country living to be as much about the outside as the inside. Rural living is about engaging all the senses — light, sound, movement, and smell — and at ARCO₂ we see this as central to wellbeing, lifestyle, and the spirit of a home.
Above Image: Waterhouse https://www.arco2.co.uk/sustainable-architecture-projects/waterhouse
