In 1961, the British architects Alison and Peter Smithson started building their summer house in Wiltshire County. It was the materialization of a series of proposals developed in the period between 1953 and 1959, among them the Burrows Lea Farm project (presented at the 10th International Congress of Modern Architecture in Dubrovnik), the Sugden House in Watford, or the House of the Future, all of which were initial hints of their approach towards rural English culture. Convinced of the need to live fully in harmony with nature and lured by the privileged environment of the countryside, the couple acquired a small plot of land close to the ruins of Fonthill Abbey, a picturesque landscape designed by William Beckford late in the 18th century. It had a large garden bordered by a stone wall, and a small cottage, a traditional country house with a pitched roof and two chimneys on stone facades... [+]