RYE RIVER HOUSE
A calm, connected retreat, Rye River House marks a rural departure for Rees Architects – a home designed for stillness, light, and reconnection with its coastal setting.
Set on the edge of the Rye Estuary, the detached timber and brick house belongs to a returning client seeking a grounded, enduring space for family life. Over time, earlier reconfigurations had fragmented the plan, closing off light and views. We were asked to reimagine the home, resolving its internal logic and restoring a direct relationship with the river.
The result is a house that flows naturally towards the landscape, with a design that’s tactile, balanced and composed to age beautifully in the coastal air.
Every space now has a view and purpose. That’s the reason the house exists in the first place. The design lets the landscape take the lead – we’ve let the house sink quietly into the background, so its surroundings can breathe and inform its spaces.
A home that flows towards the river
The existing plan placed service areas and partitions where light and sightlines should have been. We inverted its fragmented logic, introducing a clear axis through the ground floor that links kitchen, dining, and living spaces in a continuous path towards the estuary.
The kitchen, once isolated, now opens into the heart of the home – a warm, light-filled sequence anchored by a new slate-framed fireplace. Slimline glazed doors extend the view outward, opening onto a levelled black timber patio that sits flush with the interior threshold. A small viewing platform completes the journey, offering a quiet point to pause and take in the shifting tides.
A once-dark side entrance now frames a view straight through the home to the water, while relocated utility spaces keep the main living areas calm and uncluttered. A stipulation from the clients was a ground-floor bedroom for visiting in-laws, negating the need to tackle stairs. The addition of a new compact adjacent bathroom enhances the convenience for future visits.
A tactile palette of endurance
The interiors are pared back yet warm; defined by honest materials chosen for their resilience and feel. Engineered oak floors, terrazzo tiles, and concrete worktops introduce texture and rhythm, while smoked oak Reform units and gunmetal detailing in the kitchen add quiet depth. The fireplace, rebuilt in slate, grounds the living space with a sense of permanence. Bespoke joinery flanks it on either side, introducing balance and visual harmony.
Upstairs, soft neutrals and oak tones filter through dormers and angled windows, tracing the roofline and framing distant river views. The master bedroom, set beneath the apex, feels like a small retreat within the home, its built-in oak storage and ensuite blending function with calm precision. A second bedroom has been repurposed as a simple office, with an enviable view and enough space to allow for a bed, to give it a layer of dualistic function.
Connection, craftsmanship and calm
While contemporary in its detail, Rye River House is rooted in respect for its surroundings. Every material and junction was chosen for longevity; from the metals and finishes resistant to salt air, to the restored pergola where the original grapevine (removed during building work and later reinstalled) now climbs once again.
Through quiet craftsmanship and careful spatial logic, the project transforms a once-disjointed house into a place that feels innately connected to the landscape – an architecture of ease, balance, and belonging.
“This house is about flow, connection and calm. It’s somewhere that feels settled in itself – a place where you can breathe, pause and just look out at changing nature that lies in front of you.”
– Daniel Rees
Signed by Rees
Rye River House embodies the studio’s enduring philosophy: to design spaces that feel natural to live in and architecture attuned to material, light and landscape. It is a home that doesn’t compete with its setting but quietly completes it.
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