Adam Richards Architects is an award-winning architectural practice founded in 2000, based in London and Sussex. ARA has developed a reputation for a wide range of arts, cultural, heritage and residential projects. From its inception, ARA’s approach has been to transform the deeper cultural themes within its projects into engaging critical, spatial, social and structural propositions. Their clients often have unique objects and unusual sites, with ARA collaborating with them to find inspiring, inventive and affordable ways of making their environment better.

Nithurst Farm (2019) in the South Downs National Park is the practice’s latest house. Designing it they wanted to experiment by mixing the geometries of abstract art with aspects of traditional architectural forms and materials – while also designing a home to celebrate and intensify the experiences of family life. Described as ‘an industrial ruin wrapped in a Roman ruin’, it also represents a journey in time and space towards a spiritual homecoming. The new-build family home won the RIBA South East Building of the Year Award and the worldwide Wallpaper* Design Award for Best New Private House in 2020.

An earlier award-winning house, Mission Hall, is depicted in The Financial Times as ‘a curious and compelling house that mashes up bits of gothic, classical and agricultural architecture, but abstracts them to the extent that they become ghosts rather than representations.’

Adam Richards Architects gained international recognition for the critically acclaimed Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, which was chosen by The Sunday Times as the architectural highlight of the year, won a collection of awards and led to a nomination for the prestigious European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (2015).