A contemporary  house of great individuality:

Contemporary house with split roof and framed balcony
A contemporary family home with a great street presence, traditionally built with masonry walls and timber upper floor and roof and a steel framing added to the front elevation, and which also works very well as a space in which to live.  The first floor living room has great westerly sea views and is linked to the ground floor by a bespoke stair.  Design:  Nick
Kitchen and dining area
The Kitchen and dining area is on the round floor, enjoying westerly views and evening sunlight
First floor living room
The living room is on the first floor, reached by a sculptural stair, and with sea views and a well sized balcony
Water feature
A linear water feature fronting the patio helps reflect light back into the kitchen and dining space.
 

This house, whilst having a striking external appearance has also been designed to function extremely well as a home, with good separation between the social living spaces and the more private bedrooms.  The stair from ground floor to first has been carefully arranged to unite the two spaces, rather than to divide them. 

The design was created for a discerning client who wanted to create a new home that expressed a strong desire for contemporary design.  In common with other such projects our initial discussions centred around three linked but separate areas:

  • A schedule of necessary spaces, with a wish list for those that are desirable but not essential,
  • An understanding of how the house is to be occupied and used, whether it should be open plan, or cellular, a place for gregarious socialising or for for quiet contemplative living, a mixture of the two, or something in between, where the balance between openness and privacy lies, and so on. 
  • Finally a discussion about style and aesthetics. 

For many people some of these questions are difficult to answer.  It may be that they have spent so many years adapting their life to suit a house that they could afford, was in the right place, or was simply the nearest that they could find to what they actually wanted.  When building for yourself you have the choice to shape your home to your own preferences and the lifestyle that suits you best, whether that is expansive or more modest.  In some cases the external appearance, certainly of the front, will be subject to long discussions with Planning Officers, whose taste may not align with your own.

 

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