Hearth House: Reimagined 1950s Country Home in Surrey by Medium

Hearth House is a thoughtful renovation and retrofit of a 1950s country house in the Surrey Hills, led by Medium. Over decades the home had been altered by many disconnected extensions, making its layout confused and its connection to the garden weak. Medium took on the challenge of weaving together the patchwork additions into a coherent, functional family home. Their goal was not to erase history but to stitch it back together, enhancing connections—between rooms, between old and new, between indoors and landscape.

At its heart is a reinstated hearth, repositioned to face the newly built timber-framed dining hall. That hall serves as the spine that ties together the original two-storey house and the single-storey extension to the north. The house steps with the land, creating gradual transitions to garden level so that many rooms feel part of the external landscape. Private sleeping and living zones are pushed to the edges; communal living and dining occupy central, generous, transparent spaces.

Sustainability plays a key role. Insulation has been significantly upgraded. Materials like Welsh-grown Douglas fir and timber offcuts are used not only for structure but in bespoke joinery: benches, wardrobes, shelving. The external render unifies old and new with smooth and roughcast textures. Hearth House shows how renovation can restore not just form but performance, not only comfort but connection. This article explores its design logic, materials, context, and critical interpretation. Then we discuss what the project teaches architects and why it matters now in architectural thinking and typology, especially in architecture focused on reuse and heritage.

Project Overview

The house is located in Surrey Hills, England, in a pastoral rural setting. Originally built in the 1950s, it had accumulated several one-storey additions over time that were disconnected from the core of the house. Medium’s work involved removing or reorganizing many of those additions, and inserting a new timber framed hall to reconnect and unify the layout. The hearth was restored and mirrored to face the dining hall, making it symbolic and functional. Views to gardens and farmland are framed through strategic windows and doors.

The new plan has an L-shaped layout: the original two-storey portion to the west, the single storey wings to the north. The dining hall occupies the “knuckle” between these parts, enhancing circulation. Levels are stepped so rooms gently open to the outdoors. Private areas are located around periphery; communal areas are central. The external treatment uses white renders—smooth where new, roughcast where old—giving a unified yet textured facade.

Program and Functions

The program is domestic: for a family. There are bedrooms, bathrooms, living spaces, kitchen and dining. The central hearth and dining area function as the social and spatial anchor. Outdoor rooms, patio, garden thresholds extend the living outdoors. Bespoke joinery fills the interior: benches, wardrobes, shelving made of timber offcuts. Natural light is brought deep into the plan. Thermal performance is much improved. The design ensures both everyday living and social gathering work comfortably.

Key Facts and Figures

Spatial & Landscape Context

The Surrey Hills provide a scenic rural landscape with gentle hills, pasture fields, and gardens. Hearth House opens up views to that landscape, particularly from the central hall and through windows facing south. The house is arranged to step down toward the garden, creating thresholds between indoor and outdoor. Paths, patios, and a timber canopy reinforce that connection. The external ground levels and terrace placement allow garden rooms and views without massive terrain alteration.

Interior Experience and Materials

Inside, spaces feel warm and coherent. Timber joinery is detailed, using offcut materials so waste is minimized. The new hall uses Douglas fir in a pinwheel grid around a turned circular timber column. The furniture and fittings carry the material consistency. The floors, windows, and finishes carry intentional texture and light. The restored hearth acts as both focal point and gathering space, now mirrored toward the hall. Light from rooflights and windows frames views and filters into interior spaces.

Challenges and Responses

Many previous additions were poorly built, causing structural issues. Walls hidden behind other walls, inconsistent floor levels, and weak insulation were among the problems. Medium responded by stripping back bad alterations, reinforcing existing structure, and inserting the new hall with precise joinery. The mirrored hearth required careful orientation. Also, achieving good thermal performance in older masonry required improved insulation and sealing. Ensuring the visual continuity in facade while aligning old and new portions needed careful design of render textures.

Architectural Analysis

Design Logic

Hearth House’s design logic is about unification, stitching, and spatial hierarchy. Rather than adding more, the design subtracts and reorganizes. Private spaces are pushed out; communal spaces are centralized. The hearth is reinstated as the symbolic center. The new timber framed hall bridges the old house and extensions, serving both functional and aesthetic roles. The stepping of rooms toward garden and framing of views enhance connection with site and landscape.

Material Use Welsh-grown Douglas fir is used for the new structural hall, with traditional joinery methods that favor disassembly. Existing masonry walls are preserved where possible. Timber offcuts reused for furniture. External renders (smooth and roughcast) unify material language. Insulation is upgraded to high standards. The material palette emphasizes wood, masonry, plaster—natural, tactile, durable.

Context

The setting is rural, quiet, pastoral. Surrey Hills have protected landscapes and architectural heritage. Hearth House respects local character: modest scale, sensitive materials, and careful insertion of modern elements. It avoids visual disruption while enhancing everyday living. The restored hearth and the hall’s windows frame views, letting the home feel part of its land.

Critical Interpretation

Hearth House is exemplary in how renovation can go beyond patchwork fixes. It shows that existing homes with messy histories can be reorganized into meaningful architecture that serves family life. The balance between old and new is handled with skill: you see the interventions but you also feel continuity. One might critique whether all insulation upgrades or new structural elements are obvious, but the design tries to hide those while letting them perform. It offers a model for retrofit that is both poetic and pragmatic.

Project Importance

Lessons for Architects

This project teaches that meaningful renovation need not be about expansion. Sometimes less is more: reorganizing existing space, restoring original features, improving performance. It shows how careful joinery, orientation, and sequence of spaces can enhance daily life. Architects learn that respect for site, materials, history—combined with modern performance—yields a richer result.

Contribution to Architectural Thinking & Typology

Hearth House contributes to the typology of domestic retrofits, especially mid-20th-century country homes. It demonstrates that adding a central hall or unifying feature can repair fragmentation. It redefines how single-story additions are integrated, and how central hearths can regain significance as spatial anchors. It also expands discourse on sustainable retrofit: reuse, insulation, material reuse, minimal interventions.

Why This Matters Now

Many homes from the mid-20th century suffer from disjointed additions, poor energy performance, and weak links to their setting. As climate concerns grow, retrofitting is essential. Hearth House shows how to improve comfort and reduce environmental impact without losing character. It offers an example for homeowners, architects, and policy makers of how to treat existing housing stock as opportunity rather than liability.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

Hearth House in the Surrey Hills is a carefully reimagined 1950s country home by architecture studio Medium. In this retrofit, several incongruent extensions were either removed or reworked, while a new timber-framed dining hall—anchored by a relocated hearth—now links the original two-storey structure with the one-storey north wing. The spatial arrangement gradually steps down toward the gardens, with private rooms positioned along the edges. Materials such as Welsh-grown Douglas fir, bespoke joinery crafted from offcuts, and a mix of smooth and roughcast render define the project’s tactile character.

While the transformation achieves visual harmony and enhances energy performance, questions arise about certain compromises. The reduced floor area could restrict future spatial adaptability, and the mirrored hearth, while symbolically central, may risk altering the architectural narrative. Moreover, the long-term resilience of timber and render under evolving climate pressures remains uncertain.

Nevertheless, Hearth House stands as a compelling model of retrofit and contextual sensitivity, strengthening family life, garden connection, and material authenticity.

Conclusion

Hearth House by Medium is a renovation that respects history while boldly reinvigorating life. It does not erase the past but recovers its coherence. Through the reinstated hearth, the new timber hall, the unified rendering, and the improved insulation, the house becomes more than sum of its parts. It becomes a home that’s legible, functional, and connected—to its inhabitants and to its land.

It shows that architecture’s role is not only in grand gestures but in repair, in careful stitching, in making everyday life beautiful. Hearth House reminds that home is both comfort and memory. The project is a bridge between decades: the original house of the 1950s and the living home of today.

For architecture, Hearth House offers a proof: that thoughtful renovation can generate value—as experiential, as environmental, as familial. As we confront climate change, housing stock renewal, and heritage conservation, we need more projects like this. Hearth House matters because it is not about novelty alone; it is about stewardship, permanence, and poetry in structure.

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