WHAT WE’RE SEEING: C20th Society tour of the Modernist housing at Frinton-on-Sea

May 13, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

Saturday 15 June, 9:45am meet

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On 15 June, the Twentieth Century Society is organising a walking tour to Frinton Park Estate in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. Mentioned in Jonathan Meades‘ The Joy of Essex, Frinton Park Estate is a partially complete 200 acre speculative housing development which was begun in 1934 by Coast Property Investment Company, who planned to build a whole new small town. The tour looks at the collection of Modernist houses on the Estate including those by the lead masterplanner for the estate, Oliver Hill. This all-day event, led by John Barter, Rachel Baldwin and volunteers of the Frinton and Walton Heritage Trust, also looks at the best houses in the ‘select Edwardian Avenues’ on the Powell Cooper Estate, for which Frinton is also famous. There will also be interiors and other surprises on the day and Liz Bruce, the Trust’s Archivist, will open the Trust’s Railway Gatekeeper’s Cottage Museum to be viewed at the end of the visit. For more information, visit: The Twentieth Century Society

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Contemporary property for sale on Lake Geneva

May 11, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

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This four-bedroom house on Lake Geneva, near the village of Maxilly, has just come on the market for €2.5 million (£2.1 million). Completed in 2009, the house is split over two levels to make the most of the views over the local mountains of the Mémises and Dent d’Oche. On the ground floor is an open plan living space with kitchen and dining area that opens out in all directions to the terraces and garden. The first floor includes a master bedroom with ensuite as well as the remaining bedrooms and a family bathroom. The house has a full basement with a garage and storage area, children’s area, laundry room, wine cellar and an open room which could become a home cinema area. Constructed from precast concrete panels and using such a bold lines, overhangs and terraces, house is uncompromising in its modernity but sits effectively and strikingly in its mountainous landscape, while its openness makes it a fantastic vantage point to take advantage of the stunning scenery.

WHAT WE’RE HEARING: What’s going on on the brownfield sites along the Thames in east London

May 10, 2013
WHAT WE'RE HEARING

WHAT WE’RE HEARING

Phase one of Barking Riverside has been designed by Sheppard Robson. The 45 hectare scheme consists of 1,400 of the planned 10,800 homes. The total area covered will be 140 hectares

Phase one of Barking Riverside has been designed by Sheppard Robson. The 45 hectare scheme consists of 1,400 of the planned 10,800 homes. The total area covered will be 140 hectares

If you head out of London east down the river Thames, it becomes apparent that not too far from the city centre are acres and acres of derelict land and buildings that were once used for industrial purposes or landfill. To most people, it doesn’t make sense why this apparently unused land isn’t being developed into housing to solve the housing crisis – it looks like a simple solution. This week’s What We’re Hearing collects together a selection of articles about the issue of brownfield housebuilding by The Economist. The first, Full metal riverside, looks specifically at Thames Gateway where, for example a new four-bedroom house on the Barking Riverside estate sells for £270,000. And the second article, The brownfield delusion, is a blog update on the subject more generally – about how difficult it is for housebuilders to use brownfield sites, because of treatment work and location attraction problems. The articles also point to more in-depth research carried out by the LSE Spatial Economics Research Centre’s Paul Cheshire in How to Kill Nightingales and not Build Houses: Insist on building on brownfields. Cheshire argues against the use of brownfield sites as a quick fix solution to the housing problem by pointing out their benefits to wildlife.

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: A talk at the RIBA on the ‘Four Elements of Ornament, Meaning and Eloquence in Architecture’

May 9, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

Free
21 May 2013, 6pm – 7pm
RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London

Garland Court, London, SE17 by dRMM

Garland Court, London, SE17 by dRMM

Evelyn Road, London, E16 by Niall McLaughlin Architects

Evelyn Road, London, E16 by Niall McLaughlin Architects

While not strictly about houses, this talk at the RIBA titled the ‘Four Elements of Ornament, Meaning and Eloquence in Architecture’, will provide a crucial understanding into the removal of ornament from architecture that shaped modern housing in the twentieth century. In the last century, Oliver Domeisen believes ‘architecture lost an entire language that was uniquely able to convey intrinsic and extrinsic meaning beyond the categories of proportion, material and space.’ This talk attempts to trace and argue that there is a re-emergence of decoration, pattern and architectural ornament underway in contemporary practice. The talk will propose a theoretical framework that defines the core elements of ornament based on historical precedent in an attempt to provide a shared platform upon which this renewed design discipline may thrive.

Oliver Domeisen is the Curator of Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism at the V&A. He is also a thesis advisor and history and theory course lecturer for the MArch and BSc programmes at the Bartlett, UCL. He is the founder of dlm architectural designers Ltd and previously worked as a Unit Master at the AA and as a project architect for Zaha Hadid Architects. He has lectured and published on the topic of architectural ornament in the UK and abroad.

For more information and to book a free place, visit: RIBA

NEW HOLIDAY PROPERTY: Woodland retreat in Beckley, East Sussex, by Tim Bushe

May 8, 2013
NEW HOLIDAY PROPERTY

NEW HOLIDAY PROPERTY

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Located approximately five miles from Rye with its winding cobbled streets, medieval buildings, quirky shops, galleries, pubs and restaurants and 13 miles from Hastings with its new Jerwood Gallery designed by HAT Projects, we have recently added this holiday property to our holiday lets collection. Designed by Tim Bushe in 2011, Boxwood is an upside-down low-energy house surrounded by an ancient woodland. The property has three double bedrooms, one of which has an en-suite wet room. There is also a large family bathroom with bath and shower. The focus of the house is a large open-plan living space which makes use of the entire volume of the upper level created by the pitched roof. A spacious kitchen opens to a dining area. In the garden are two adjoining terraces from which to enjoy the woodland.

For additional modern architecture, the house is situated just along the coast from Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff’’s restored De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill, with its expansive arts programme. Derek Jarman’s converted fisherman’s hut and garden and other notable new buildings such as Nord’s Shingle House are to be found at Dungeness.

For more information, visit: Boxwood, Beckley, East Sussex

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Broughton House by Craig Ellwood, Los Angeles

May 4, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

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This house by Craig Ellwood (1922-1992) in Los Angeles is on the market for $799,000 (£515,000). Located in Beverly Hills and designed in 1949, it has three bedrooms and was a precursor to the architect’s LA Case Study Houses 16, 17 and 18. Miesian-style steel beams support curtain windows with hillside views. Despite not having formal training in the profession, Craig Ellwood is one of the classic modernist Californian architects of the 1950s to 1970s, and became well-known and highly regarded, even teaching at Yale University. He set up Craig Ellwood Design in 1951 with his brother and two friends, with whom he had served in the war. Although Ellwood was the chief designer, the practice always contained a trained architect in order to sign off the drawings.

Ellwood was born Jon Nelson Burke. The name of his practice was inspired by a liquor store called Lords and Elwood located in front of his office. He later legally changed his own name to Ellwood.

For modern properties for sale and to let in the UK, visit: The Modern House

ARCHITECT OF THE WEEK: Cullinan Studio

May 3, 2013
ARCHITECT OF THE WEEK

ARCHITECT OF THE WEEK

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Statement

Cullinan Studio is an award-winning practice with an international reputation for creating well-designed, sustainable and innovative buildings and places. Established by Ted Cullinan in 1965, we are now 30-strong and work in a single studio in Islington, north London. We pride ourselves on our collaborative working relationships and our co-operative structure gives us unusual flexibility to respond effectively to our clients, allowing them to benefit from the skills and ideas of the entire team. We have extensive experience in the residential sector, from individual houses to masterplanning whole neighbourhoods. For more information, visit: Cullinan Studio

For more architects and designers, visit our: Directory of Architects and Designers

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