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The Long House

About

Long House, designed by Hopkins Architects, occupies a long, barn like footprint on the flat expanse of North Norfolk near Cockthorpe, set against views of fields, salt marshes, and the North Sea coast. Its knapped flint walls are trimmed with polished concrete and capped with a substantial pitched roof, creating a building that is at once solid, contextually grounded, and contemporary. Timber-framed clerestory windows along the upper walls introduce diffused natural light into the central double-height hall.

“Nearly all our buildings have a big volume somewhere in the middle of them, around which other spaces are distributed,” - Michael Hopkins observes. This principle is articulated clearly here: the hall functions as both the visual anchor and circulation spine, immediately legible from the front door. Patty Hopkins notes, “People are coming here who don't know the house. They can identify the central space straight away, and you know the entire layout of the house from the front door.”

Flanking the centrally positioned front door, massive flint fortress like walls give little sense of what lies beyond. It is only on entering that guests realise the hugely generous scale and height of the grand central hall, with its expansive vaulted timber roof ‘floating’ above the rooms below. To one side, a carefully crafted timber spiral staircase rises to a galleried balcony and upper floor. The central hall, double height volumes, and gable end glazing allow multiple setups and varied lighting conditions, offering clear sight lines and technical flexibility for production.

The ground floor is organised around this central hall, flowing into an open plan living room and kitchen/dining area. Large sliding doors open to semi enclosed courtyards on the east and west sides, providing sheltered outdoor staging for shoots. A separate ground floor annexe houses a bedroom, bathroom, and desk, supporting small crews or extended production stays. Upstairs, four bedrooms with en suite bathrooms occupy the corners, connected by a galleried balcony that overlooks the hall below.

Hopkins Architects’ approach to materiality is both deliberate and historically informed. Ash timber floors reflect natural light, while furniture by Vitra, Eames, and Fritz Hansen punctuates spaces without diminishing architectural legibility. Exposed timber roof trusses and steel flitch plates carry the roof load visibly, expressing structural logic rather than concealing it. Steve Jones, project architect for Long House, explains: “We’re very interested in materials and how they come together. Understanding how flint walls were built attracted us, we spent time looking at local buildings, teasing out what might be appropriate for the Long House, researching the availability of flint, which then became manifest in a whole series of sample trial panels on site.”