'It squeezes every drop of drama that can be had from a family house': One of the most beautiful new houses of the 21st century is up for sale

'Reached through woods, it stands next to golden cornfields, broken by hedges, without another human habitation to be seen,' wrote Clive Aslet in Country Life following a visit to Downley House. 'This is the sort of site that a medieval builder might have chosen, for shelter rather than show. But don't think that Downley House is unassuming; on the contrary, it squeezes every drop of drama that can be had from a family house.'

Clive — a former editor of the magazine — was writing back in 2013, not long after Downley had been completed, with owner Chris Taee and his family having moved in after a two-year build. Today, with the children having grown up and the family moving on, Downley Park is looking for a new owner; it's for sale through House at £4.25 million.

Chris was in the fortunate position to take a couple of years away from work to project manage the build himself, a time of his life that he describes as 'memorable, stressful, but fabulous'. The award-winning end result — designed by architects Birds Portchmouth Russum — took a site that once contained a dilapidated house and turned it into something very special indeed: a five bedroom house with over 7,000sq ft, in which 'space flows through the building like a stream' (in Clive's words).

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Nowhere is that more evident that in the room that is without doubt the showstopper, a bold, challenging vaulted dining room that is akin to a medieval great hall, where the roof is formed with curved, laminated timber, with copper elements adding extra drama.

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It's an extraordinary space that's full of light, and offers wonderful views of the sheltered valley that the house sits in; 'you can sit back and bask in the sunshine, or watch the weather roll in up the valley', says Chris. It probably helps that there's a superb wine cellar in which to keep something special to sip while you enjoy those views.

The danger of high ceilings and glass walls in new builds is that the resulting building 'can feel austere, cold and vacuous,' Chris adds. 'But everyone who comes here comments on how cosy it feels. It's not a cold place to be.'

That's a statement which is literally true, as well as metaphorically, as Clive's piece in 2013 explained. Downley House's design includes, 'hyper-insulation, a geothermal heat pump and a ventilation system that passes incoming air through pipes buried 5ft underground and extracts heat from the exhausted air.'

As the 2012 vs 2026 pictures on this page show nicely, the house has settled into its landscape over the years. Walls which once stood out against the South Downs backdrop are now covered in the characterful creeping which the Taees planted when the house was built, and the cherry trees that went in are now the best part of a decade and a half old.

That was always the plan, Chris explains, but it's evidently very gratifying to see it coming to fruition: 'Its only right for a country house in a setting like this to blend into its surroundings,' he says.

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The pull of the property isn't just about the house and its two and a half acres of the South Downs, however. Harting Down, with its mix of protected woodland and wide open spaces, is on the doorstep, and the market town of Petersfield — with its superb schools and fast trains to London Waterloo — is ten minutes up the road. Not surprisingly, then, Chris says what he'll miss most about moving on is the mix of tranquility, beauty and practicality; or, as Clive put it back in 2013: 'This house is not only a work of art. At every level, it works.'

Downley House is for sale through House Parternship at £4.25 million — see more details.