You do not simply arrive at Incurvo, you are gathered in.
From the lane, all you see at first is a sweep of luminous brick and black zinc, curving out of the hillside like a folded piece of landscape. It looks poised rather than planted, as if the Chilterns themselves have lifted and wrapped around a place to live. But it is when the gates close behind you and the gravel crunches underfoot that you realise the house is not facing you at all. It is turned towards the meadow, the pond and the long fields beyond, its focus firmly on light, views and calm.
Incurvo takes its name from the Latin for "I bend" or "I curve". It is a name that fits. Everything here bends a little. Walls flow instead of meeting in blunt corners. Routes drift around arcs rather than cutting straight down corridors. Even the garden echoes the same language of curves and gentle flow. It is an idea that has earned the house serious recognition. Designed by Adrian James Architects of Oxford, Incurvo has won the RIBA South Award and the RIBA South Sustainability Award, and was also named a winner in the Chilterns Buildings Design Awards for its almost carbon neutral performance and the way it sits in this protected landscape.
Yet despite the medals, this is not a showpiece shouting from a hill. It is a deeply personal home, created by owners who lived every inch of the project and who still talk in terms of guardianship rather than ownership.
A plot, a brief, and a single clear idea
The story begins in 2010 with an overgrown two-acre plot above the village, an Arts and Crafts house that had seen better days and a garden that had gone to seed. What the site did have was something rarer: views, space and a sense of quiet that the owners were determined to respect.
Their brief to Adrian James was simple to state and complex to deliver. They wanted a genuinely 21st century house, designed around the way they live, that would sit lightly in this landscape and perform to exemplary environmental standards.
From the early concept work, one idea stood out. The house would curve with the landscape rather than cut across it. The plan would do away with corridors and allow you to move from space to space in a continuous flow. The main elevation would turn its attention towards meadow, pond and fields instead of the lane. That single idea, expressed as a long, sinuous brick carapace wrapped around a concrete core, became Incurvo.
Planning consent followed in 2012, and by 2014 the old house had gone and the new one was coming out of the ground. Rather than hand everything to a main contractor, the owners chose to appoint each trade themselves and work with a project manager, staying close to every decision. Sunday evening emails went to the whole team, setting out the week ahead. Problems were tackled round a table, with architect, engineers and builders asked not whether something was easy, but whether it was right. The result is a house that feels absolutely resolved because its creators lived the process as intently as they now live in the finished home.
A dynamic form that still feels domestic
On paper, Incurvo is significant in scale with 543 square metres of living space (including the self-contained studio over the garage), plus a further 83.5 square metres of garaging. In photographs, its sweep of brick and zinc makes a clear architectural statement. In reality, the experience is surprisingly intimate.
On the ground floor there are no internal steps at all, despite the gradient of the road outside. The parking areas and main garden terraces sit level with the entrance, so movement in and out of the house is completely smooth.
The structure itself is insulated concrete formwork, poured to form a continuous core for walls, floors and roof. Around this, the brick carapace curves and tightens, its hand-made local bricks laid with recessed mortar that helps emphasise the pattern and catches light. Windows are deeply set into the reveals so that frames almost disappear and you read glass, brick and landscape, not a grid of metalwork.
Inside, the effect is of movement without fuss. The entrance hall soars in height yet immediately draws you inwards. Standing there, you can see daylight at the far end of two different axes and a vertical ribbon of glass that slices down almost to the floor, framing trees and sky.
Turn one way and you follow a gentle curve into the main living area, where a carefully placed wall creates a feeling of cosiness without shutting anything off. Turn the other and you are led into the quieter side of the house, where a gym and cinema room sit alongside a highly adaptable reception - at present a music and reading room with organ, bookshelves and generous seating, but just as capable of becoming a library, drawing room or study suite, its zones created by furniture and view rather than partitions.
A house built around the way you live
From the outset, the owners knew exactly how they wanted to use the house. They are both busy, engaged people, with music, teaching, community life and grandchildren woven into their week. They do not treat their home as a backdrop, but as an active part of their lifestyle.
So the hall is not just a place to pass through. It has the proportions and acoustics to work as a performance space. Informal concerts have been held here, with the gallery becoming a natural balcony for extra seats. The same open floor is used for yoga, with the views out over the garden offering the necessary ‘zen’, with the adjacent gym offering the appropriate space for more equipment based activities.
The kitchen is equally shaped by real life. Hand made by Chiselwood of Lincoln, it follows the curves of the house rather than fighting them. A marble topped breakfast bar arcs gently, lined with stools that have become the unofficial hub when the kitchen is in use. This is where grown up children perch with laptops, where friends sit with a glass of wine while supper is put together, where conversation inevitably pools. Behind, a secondary run wraps quietly out of sight, with a second sink, another dishwasher and generous storage, so the busy work of cooking and clearing can happen offstage while the main space stays calm and uncluttered. The kitchen is fully equipped with a suite of Miele appliances including hob, steamer, ovens and warming drawer, a large fridge freezer and a versatile Fisher & Paykel fridge drawer, making entertaining feel effortless.
Lighting and controls are treated with the same care. A Lutron system controls both lighting and blinds throughout the house. Any keypad can be programmed with scenes for different rooms, and the system can adjust automatically to dawn and dusk through the year if you wish. There is an away setting that turns selected lights on in the evening when you are not at home, and light sensors can lower the blinds automatically to help prevent the house from overheating.
Upstairs, the main suite occupies one wing and reads as a private apartment. The bedroom opens to a balcony that uses specially engineered glass balustrading without a heavy top rail or uprights, keeping the view as clear as possible. The ensuite and dressing areas continue the theme of curve and tactility, with mother of pearl tiling, bespoke cabinetry and a sculptural Victoria & Albert bath placed in the bedroom itself, lending a quiet hotel-like indulgence to everyday life.
Upstairs, the gallery looks back over the hall and out to the garden, with the main suite at one end and further bedrooms following the curve of the house, each with fitted storage and its own outlook over trees, meadow or open fields. Even when there are no guests, none of these rooms sits idle: one holds sewing, another is pressed into service as a reading room, and a corner of a guest bedroom has become a favourite study spot simply because the light and view there are too good to waste. Incurvo is the opposite of the big house where half the plan is shut away; its rooms are so comfortable and flexible that they each invite daily use.
Comfort, calm and a light touch on the planet
If the form of Incurvo is about movement, its technical heart is about economy. Built to rigorous low energy standards, and described by its architect as being "as close to a Passivhaus as a curvy house can be", the house meets stringent benchmarks for insulation, airtightness and thermal comfort.
Insulated concrete formwork wraps the entire structure in a continuous layer of insulation. Triple glazing is used throughout apart from the three curved windows and one very large picture window, where optical clarity was prioritised over triple layers. The result is a house where every room sits at a similar, even temperature and where there are no draughts.
Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery works quietly in the background, drawing warm, moist air from the gym, utility, kitchens and bathrooms, passing it through a heat exchanger, and using that warmth to temper the fresh air that is brought in. The air in the house turns over several times an hour without any sense of a breeze, so it always feels fresh yet never cold.
Heating and hot water are provided by a mains gas boiler, underfloor heating on the ground floor and radiators above, supplemented by solar thermal panels and photovoltaic arrays on the roof. The house was awarded an EPC A rating when built (only a tiny fraction of UK homes achieve this level) and the current owners report net annual heating and hot water costs in the region of two thousand pounds despite the size of the property, thanks to the combination of low energy demand and feed in tariffs. Incurvo has recently received another EPC A rating when the house was re-assessed on its 10-year anniversary.
Rainwater from the sweeping roof is captured in a 5,000 litre underground tank to be reused in the garden and for washing cars. Finally, a three phase electrical supply, extensive wiring for audio, data and security, and a comprehensive control system mean that much of the building services can be monitored and adjusted using mobile phones and laptops, while remaining intuitive for day to day use.
A garden that completes the story
Of particular note is that the house and its garden were conceived together. Acres Wild, a specialist landscape practice known for naturalistic planting, worked alongside the architect to ensure that the outdoor spaces spoke the same language as the building.
More than 7,000 plants and 65 trees were brought in as part of a complete reworking of the plot. Some of the over mature trees close to the house were removed, opening up long views to the fields behind. In their place came multi stem birches, fruit trees, ornamental species and structural shrubs that give framework in winter as well as summer.
The wildflower meadow that wraps one side of the garden hums with insects in high summer and then quietly rests down through autumn and winter. Dogwoods that look unassuming in leaf become bright red stems reflected in the pond once the leaves fall, set against the white bark of the birches. The large wildlife pond itself is both a visual focus and a habitat, with a timber platform that lets you sit almost at water level and watch birds, dragonflies and bats as the light fades.
Decked terraces are placed like punctuation points. One runs full width along the main living space on the south side, effectively becoming an outdoor room for entertaining. Another steps down outside the music room. A third projects over the pond, and a fourth, more discreet deck sits at the far edge of the garden, looking back across the meadow towards the house and beyond to the wooded slopes. Other benches and sitting spots invite you to pause, take in a view or simply breathe for a moment.
The house and garden together have been recognised not only in architectural awards but also in landscaping circles, with a national BALI award acknowledging the quality of the planting and construction.
The studio, the garage and the quiet practicalities
To one side of the main house stands a smaller companion building with its own curves which echo the larger form. The architect describes this relationship as "mother and daughter" and you can see why. The smaller volume contains a generous triple garage at ground level, with a self-contained studio flat above.
The studio has proved remarkably adaptable. Over the years it has housed an older child between addresses, friends needing space, and even a family member working in Oxford over the summer. It would work equally well as a base for a carer, nanny, housekeeper, artist in residence or simply as a luxurious guest suite.
Location and connections
Goring on Thames is a proper village rather than a commuter outpost. It has a primary school, health centre, dentist, pharmacy, independent shops, a delicatessen, hardware store, cafes, two pubs, a riverside hotel and public green spaces, along with churches of several denominations. It has twice been named Oxfordshire Village of the Year and has also taken the South of England title.
From Incurvo, you have instant access to countryside. Footpaths lead out into the Chilterns and along the Ridgeway and Thames Path, with the North Wessex Downs also close at hand. For wider connections there is Goring and Streatley station less than a mile away, with regular services to Reading and Paddington and onward into central London on the Elizabeth Line. Paddington can be reached in as little as 45 minutes.
Schooling options, both state and independent, are extensive, with several well-known schools in Abingdon, Radley, Moulsford, Woodcote and Reading within easy reach by school bus or train.
Guardianship and the next chapter
Perhaps the most striking thing about Incurvo is how its owners talk about it now. Ten years in, they are no less in love with the house and garden than when they moved in. If anything, articulating the story for sale has reminded them what an achievement it all was.
They describe evenings with friends gathered in the kitchen, music drifting from the hall, grandchildren discovering favourite spots in the garden, students coming for lessons, yoga mats unrolled in front of the vast windows. They talk about the sense of calm that seems to settle on people as they walk through the door, and how the organic flow of the house supports quiet reflection as readily as it does big gatherings.
At the same time, they are clear that the story is ready to move on. Their next house will bring them physically closer to their grandchildren and another exciting phase of their lives. They do not see themselves as leaving Incurvo so much as handing it on, echoing the custodians of far older houses.
They hope that the next owners will be people who feel the pull of that story. People who understand that they would be buying more than square metres and specification. It might be a creative couple who value space, light and quiet. It might be a family moving out from London who want a sanctuary that still connects easily to the city. It might even be someone who is not actively looking, until this particular house catches their eye and simply will not let go.
Whoever steps in next will inherit more than a remarkable contemporary house. They will take on a home that has already been recognised nationally for its design, its environmental performance and its contribution to its landscape, that has been featured from architectural journals to the Financial Times and Homes & Gardens, and that has been lived in and cared for with rare attention to both detail and feeling.
Incurvo will reward someone who wants to be part of that continuum. Stand in the hall. Follow the curve of the brick as it leads you towards water, trees and sky. Sit for a moment on the deck above the pond as the light changes. It is at those points, between movement and stillness, that you understand what the current guardians already know. This is not just a house. It is a place that quietly lifts the spirit and invites you to imagine your own life unfolding within its curves.
