By
Kevin Mccloud
Last updated at 12:46 AM on 27th March 2011
From the Sliding House using a 20-ton sliding cover on railway tracks to an old fisherman’s cottage preserved by giving it weather-proof rubber cladding, KEVIN McCLOUD choose his favourite British homes
1. THE SLIDING HOUSE
Architect dRMM came up with a space that changes, using a huge, 20-ton sliding cover on railway tracks that on the one hand protects the building and on the other morphs it
It’s been dubbed ‘Industrial Picturesque’, and I love the idea of someone having to come up with a new label for a build. It’s fun and it makes me smile. The owners wanted light, space and a connection with the outdoors. So architect dRMM came up with a space
that changes, using a huge, 20-ton sliding cover on railway tracks that
on the one hand protects the building and on the other morphs it.
You do need a big garden to achieve something like this but it’s remarkable
It’s
an architectural response to the outside world. It lives and breathes
and it’s an ingenious solution. You do need a big back garden to
achieve something like this but it’s remarkable.
2. STOWE HOUSE
From 1700-1800, almost every great architect worked on Stowe. It is a repository not just of architectural history but of social and cultural history
I cannot look at modern buildings without thinking of historical ones. Architecture was pretty much the sexiest thing to be doing from 1700-1800. In that period, almost every great architect worked on Stowe: Vanbrugh, Kent, Gibbs, Adam, Pitt, Borra, Soane; Capability Brown landscaped the grounds. These guys were writing the culture and history of Britain, importing ideas from Ancient Greece and Rome. The idea that you could recreate classical culture here was revolutionary. They really believed that they were creating a new world. Stowe is a repository not just of architectural history but of social and cultural history.
3. STOCK ORCHARD STREET
Built beside a railway track in Islington, London, the main floor of the house is raised up on columns, with a garden and an area for chickens occupying an under-croft
Of all the recent builds in this list, this is the one that will still resonate in 30 or 40 years’ time. Built beside a railway track in Islington, London, the main floor of the house is raised up on columns, with a garden and an area for chickens occupying an under-croft. The living area is designed to be flexible; the bedroom is wrapped in a protective wall of straw while a five-floor tower of books rises through the roof. It’s an essay, stylistically and visually, that’s full of clever ideas that might have come from a fairy story. Like all the best builds, it takes us to a place in the imagination.
4. BLACK RUBBER HOUSE
When you go inside this old fisherman’s cottage on Dungeness beach, it’s full of plywood, which makes it feel quite timeless
Simon Conder took an old fisherman’s cottage on Dungeness beach and preserved it by giving it weatherproof rubber cladding, which instantly transforms it into a dramatic structure. However, when you go inside it’s full of plywood, which makes it feel quite timeless. He is very good at that duality. It’s an eloquent way of maintaining the history of a place and reinvigorating it.
Architect Sir John Soane put into his own house all the ideas he was producing for clients
5. SIR JOHN SOANE’S HOUSE
Architect Sir John Soane’s house in
Lincoln’s Inn Fields is the first modern house. He collected an
enormous amount of things and needed to keep them somewhere so he
knocked three houses together, dug an extension down into the basement
and reskinned the front of the building.
Soane put into his own house
all the ideas he was producing for clients. Whatever he did, he went a
slightly different route and he was completely open to new solutions, a
very modern approach not obsessed with reproducing the classical world.
Hardly anyone understood what he was doing then because he was years
ahead of his time, working outside the mainstream.
Stock Orchard Street
and Soane’s House come from a very similar place; they are brilliant
live-work spaces built by their creators.
6. HOO HOUSE
Hoo House was designed by Jerry Tate, who had a lot to do with the Eden Project. He takes a pragmatic approach with builds and is focused on an ergonomic use of space
If you want a template for a modern three-bedroomed chalet house then this is it. It was affordable, imaginative and inventive without being capricious. It was designed by Jerry Tate, who had a lot to do with the Eden Project. He takes a pragmatic approach with builds and is focused on an ergonomic use of space. If only the majority of building projects costing three or four times more than this across the country displayed an ounce of the invention this did you could feel more positive about the future.
7. GAP HOUSE
Gap House is a narrow, awkward urban build, developed to determine the most cost-effective methods of achieving an environmentally-friendly home. It demonstrates a huge amount of ingenuity
Situated in an alley in West London, this is a classic example of how to repair holes in our environment. It’s a narrow, awkward urban build by Pitman Tozer Architects, developed to determine the most cost-effective methods of achieving an environmentally-friendly home. It’s an extraordinarily clever house that expands out at the back to create a very useable space. It demonstrates a huge amount of ingenuity and that’s what you pay architects for. What a great designer will do is take a horrible pokey space and conjure up something that appears three times the size. Here it is done in a way that provides the occupants with a sustainable home built so that it insulates the buildings next to it. It’s a win-win.
8. HUNSETT MILL
The startling black, charred cedar exterior was chosen to distinguish it from the brick cottage. We don’t see enough design like this in this country, sadly
This was an extension to a picture-box 19th-century Grade II-listed mill keeper’s house on the Norfolk Broads and it blew me away. East London architect Acme created the extension in the form of a shadow of the original house by adding several volumes with pitched roofs uncurling from behind the original structure. The startling black, charred cedar exterior was chosen to distinguish it from the brick cottage. We don’t see enough design like this in this country, sadly. We are used to thinking about extensions in terms of straight lines and boxes, quite a limited visual language. This is much more of a Romantic, European view. The interior is about planes that sculpt volume and that’s something we don’t do – we’re ordered on vertical and horizontal lines. I love the adventurousness of it.
9. THE LEIJSER HOUSE
The Leijser House is a low-tech, super-insulated, airtight structure that is a perfect example of how we might live in the future. It has its own language but it doesn’t shout and there is no sense of pastiche or reproduction
This is on the face of it a rather undramatic two-storey modern box home of western red cedar shingles and blue render, on a south-facing slope in Balfron by the Campsie Fells. Built by KAP, it is very quietly done, a low-tech, super-insulated, airtight structure that is a perfect example of how we might live in the future. It has its own language but it doesn’t shout and there is no sense of pastiche or reproduction either. Architecturally it’s everything I value in a building: a sense of space, its positioning in the landscape, and a playful and well-crafted design.
10. PRICKLY NUT WOOD
Prickly Nut Wood does what all great architecture does: protect, shelter and reflect its environment, people and personality. It’s wonderful and it cost just £26,000 to make
How can a building be more contextual than to be made out of its context? Ben Law lives and works at Prickly Nut Wood in West Sussex, where he makes a living coppicing. He built his own house there using material from the wood around him, leaving no waste and generating all the power himself. It was a real achievement, a perfect example of sustainable construction that made a point without wagging a finger or forcing it down anyone’s throat. It does what all great architecture does: protect, shelter and reflect its environment, people and personality. It’s wonderful and it cost just £26,000 to make. The thing I recall clearly is the emphasis on craftsmanship and the complete absence of hard hats. What was a great surprise was that Ben wasn’t only a superb craftsman, it was his attention to detail. He didn’t just grab a handful of twigs and use them to line a roof; he chose them carefully and he took the bark of some and created a pattern. He wove a story into his home.
Grand Designs Live is at ExCeL from April 30. Tickets: 0844 209 7349, granddesignslive.com (children go free)
KEVIN McCLOUD PICTURE BYLINE: CAMERA PRESS/Glenn Dearing
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