Crowshaw House, Blackrod

Crowshaw House is a new build Equestrian facility sited in a greenbelt in Blackrod, Lancashire. The client, a GB dressage rider and her family, required a larger stables and training facility to house and train 22 international horses.

At the heart of the scheme is the well-being of the horses, spatial luxury and durability. We worked closely with the client to design a scheme that worked better for them and improved their daily routines. A larger tac room, wash facility, stalls, storage, viewing gallery and salt room were all incorporated.

The strategy we introduced early on was to celebrate a simple palette of materials and convinced the client that there was a beauty and honesty to visible service routes, structural connections and raw components which all layered together to form the whole. This produced a beautiful, organic piece of architecture that didn’t need to be expensive.

Since opening, the many horses have gone on to become Olympic dressage horses and during its first summer housed the Spanish Olympic team.