Ashurst, Fernhurst: Property CGI for a Restored Voysey-Style Country House

Ashurst is a country house in Fernhurst, near Haslemere, built in the style of the Arts and Crafts architect CFA Voysey. Over the past century the house was heavily altered, and much of its original character was lost. Ian Adam-Smith Architects designed a substantial extension and renovation that brings that character back, and planning permission was granted for the scheme.

The owner then wanted to market the site with the benefit of the new consent. Ian Adam-Smith recommended Charles Roberts Studios, and we were commissioned to produce a full set of marketing visuals.

Showing the house as it could be

Archive photographs from 1919, 1939 and 1948, alongside photographs of the house as it stood before the work, show how far it had moved from its original form. The proposals restore the Voysey character, with roughcast walls, steep clay tile roofs, tall chimneys, stone-mullioned leaded windows and green-painted joinery.

We created exterior CGIs of the entrance front and garden elevation. These show the house within the proposed landscaping, which includes a gravel forecourt, clipped yew, terraced lawns, a pergola on stone piers and a garage block with a clock cupola.

Aerial views over real drone photography

We commissioned drone photography of the site and integrated the CGI into it. The aerial views show what a ground-level image cannot: the house in relation to its outbuildings, the pool and pavilion, the walled kitchen garden and the wooded hills beyond. Buyers can understand the whole estate, and its setting, from a single image.

Interior and CRS Reveal®

An interior CGI shows the double-height dining hall, with its tall wall of leaded windows, oak panelling, gallery and chequered stone floor. The round oak dining table is based on the one Lutyens designed for the kitchen at Castle Drogo, the National Trust house in Devon. Like the original, its top is made from segments that radiate from the centre.

A CRS Reveal® before-and-after slider places the existing house next to the proposed design. Buyers could see exactly what the planning consent allowed.

We also produced a breakdown video showing how the aerial images were built, from the original drone photography through to the finished CGI.

Use

The CGIs were used to sell the property with the value added by the planning consent. They showed buyers a finished house rather than a set of drawings.

For another project in a similar spirit, see our visualisation of a new Lutyens-style country house.