The COUNTRY LIFE Top 100

There are few more rewarding experiences than successfully breathing new life into an old house—or commissioning a new one. For the seventh year, COUNTRY LIFE has compiled its ever-evolving list of architects, interior designers, garden designers and specialists with the experience and creativity required to get it right

WE are fortunate to live in a golden age of British architecture, interior design, gardening and restoration. Much of this is thanks to a greater depth and breadth of expertise than ever before, which springs from the growing number of ever-more knowledgeable and inventive practitioners offering exciting opportunities to build new houses or bring old properties to life. Increasingly, these projects involve seamlessly blending old and new, creating buildings that combine styles that are not only sympathetic to their setting, but which also meet the growing demands of modern life and of sustainability. It’s a process that is reinventing the way we live, as well as engaging a vast range of ever-evolving skills, from design and craftsmanship to the creation of thermal efficiency in period buildings. COUNTRY LIFE is delighted to present its own selection of practitioners with a demonstrable track record of excellence, as well as the fresh additions bringing new ideas to the fore.

New entries to the Top 100

Berdoulat

Named after the childhood home in southwest France of founder Patrick Williams, who earned his pocket money—and understanding of traditional buildings—by apply- ing lime render to his parents’ 18th-century farmhouse, this company embodies Mr Williams’s passion for restoration and sensitivity to fine craftsmanship.