A “Housestead” in Suffolk, U.K., Merges a Thatched Roof with the Latest Green Tech

To go to Amir Sanei and Abigail Hopkins’s new home on a vast and historic estate in coastal Suffolk, you drive through wooded grounds and past Victorian buildings and structures, eventually arriving at an opening with a utilitarian shed and a dark brick wall featuring a “moon gate.” It is only once you have walked through this circular arch that the dwelling’s unique configuration — and the expansive and somewhat mystical landscape of heathland and marshy waters below — are revealed. Composed of four geometrically different, discrete and defined volumes arranged off a central courtyard, Housestead (as the home is called) is both strikingly contemporary and richly context-driven, offering a potential blueprint for contemporary rural…