ARC Thorpeness Featured in the July 2026 Issue of Living Magazine

Carol Driver speaks to Tom and Eleanor Leahy—the architect and design duo behind Parti and ARC—across 6 pages of Living Magazine’s July 2026 issue. Throughout the discussion, Driver comes to understand how and why the Leahy’s purchased the five-storey water tower that was close to being condemned in Thorpeness, Suffolk. Driver discovers that it was not just the interest in the building itself and the mock-tudor architecture of the area. The Leahy’s were clearly interested in the history of Thorpeness: the strange dreamlike nature of an intentionally built Edwardian holiday resort, and the potential to keep the rich history alive through restoration.

Tom tells Driver that: ‘ARC Thorpeness is designed as a journey upwards with every floor having a clear purpose but with the shared life of the house deliberately placed at the top’. Tom is referring to the top floor living space which provides guests with a panoramic view of and around Thorpeness, of the lake meare and coast. As Driver comments, the reward on the top floor is not just the view, it is also the ‘remarkable architecture, quiet luxury, and the rare pleasure of time well spent’.

Clearly Eleanor and Tom’s interest stretches further than merely architecture—they appreciate restoration and renewal; creating from history. The Leahy’s confirm through their work that there is indeed space for the old, reminding us that not everything needs to be removed and replaced. Keeping the history of Thorpeness alive by restoring the tower reminds us of another quote of Tom’s from the editorial, that he is ‘drawn to buildings that have that relationship to the landscape’, and ARC Thorpeness has exactly that. The tower itself is a reflection of a past goal, of a perhaps unattainable idea, the one that the founder of the holiday resort in Thorpeness had previously had.

The article also announced the exciting news that four further ARC properties are due to open this year: ARC Dales, ARC Fowey, ARC Lakes, and ARC Surrey.

Turning historical buildings into sustainable buildings is what drives Tom and Eleanor, and at ARC we are excited for a future of history made sustainable.