Swinhay House – A Sustainable Stately Home For The 21st Century

The Brief

The client’s vision was to create a home for the present and a legacy for future generations. The brief for the interior was to combine the latest developments in energy conservation with a contemporary and sustainable design, using high quality specification finishes.
Re:light’s role was to design and develop the internal and external lighting scheme for the building. The project was commercial in scale and highly technical in its requirements. Our challenge was to light this vast space with all the detail and intimacy of a domestic home, whilst meeting the client’s stringent energy-efficiency standards.
The nature and scale of the project meant that there were no standard solutions: we needed to light the house as creatively as possible, enhancing the stunning architecture and concealing and integrating light fittings into the highly engineered structure.
For this project, Re:light had the opportunity to work as part of a skilled design team, for a proactive, engaged client. The design team, led by the development company’s project manager, also included architects for the interior – Roberts Limbrick, M&E consultants – Silcock Dawson, integration specialists Flaming Box and interior decorator Naomi Gregory.

The Site

Swinhay House is the futuristic new dream home of one of the UK’s leading industrialists. Situated in the heart of the Gloucestershire countryside, the pioneering structure is at the cutting edge of building technology, sustainability and energy conservation. Completed in 2009, the vast 36,000 sq.ft. building is an astonishing mix of angular, high-tech insulated metal roofing and curved bonded glass, surrounded by rolling, lawned grounds and lakes. Part underground, the accommodation is on eleven different levels. It includes a solar-insulated glass atrium, an indoor recreation area and pool and self-contained apartments.

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