The success of these additions is clearly a result of the architect’s understanding and careful response to the context: a complex grouping of historical and modern buildings.

The new gym, spa and riverside bedrooms are discreetly placed along the edge of the site creating a backdrop to the exceptional established gardens done to the design of Anne Sutton. Upon closer inspection, the steel and glass pavilions are beautifully made open-plan spaces separated by a pool reflecting filtered sun. The elegantly detailed steel structure allows uninterrupted views to the garden, pool and mountains through moveable glass doors.

The slope of the site is optimally used to hide the underground parking and minimize the scale of the spa and riverside bedrooms. Concrete roofs and the stepping of the double-storey bedroom wing are combined with landscaped terraces, timber screens and stonework, resulting in a comfortable transition to the river’s edge.

The architectural restraint and sensitivity to scale of these buildings have resulted in an exquisite composition which is both a foreground and background building.