Ravencar House - Museum & Art Gallery

When Jim and Susan commissioned architects Patterson Associates to design a new home where they could share their art collection, they wanted the building itself to be a work of art that they could gift to Christchurch and Canterbury.

Pattersons’ design comprises four main rooms, each based on one of the principal rooms at the original Scarborough house: the dining room, bedroom, living room and library. In the new house, these rooms are arranged around a central courtyard and connected with glass link spaces that look out to the gardens.

The building’s high gables evoke the neo-Gothic forms of the neighbouring Arts Centre and Canterbury Museum. Despite these nods to the past, Ravenscar House is a boundary-pushing modern building – albeit one that resonates with the mystery and romance of the past.