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24 I DESIGN
or life on the edge, the sitting room of Paul and Helen Owers's house takes some beating. It's on the first fioor, but there's no ground fioor underneath, only fresh Cornish air and a vertiginous drop to a hillside garden that slopes steeply down to the creek below. Perched above the Fal estuary, on the south Cornish coast between 1ruro and Falmouth, it's a glazed eyrie from where you can gaze seven miles down the water at a constantly changing panorama of cloud formations, birds and treetops, grazing cows and the comings and goings of tides and boats. It's why the owners have hardly watched TV since they moved in. The brief they gave to their architect, John Pardey, was to design a home that made the most of the view. He's certainly done that. The L-shaped house is split into two distinct halves: a two -storey, fourbedroom wing with expansive glazing facing the water; and, at an angle to this, the other section projects in a draMatic cantilever towards the creek. As you walk into this floating open-plan space, with full-height glazing all down the left wall, you come to the kitchen first, then the dining table and the sitting area, with a bright green contemporary sofa positioned above the steepest drop. It's a stylish front-row seat: the end wall it faces is also glazed, giving the sitting room 180-degree views. "It's like being in an aircraft when you're at the end of the room, as if you're standing in the sky," says Pardey, who created a differently framed view from every room, including the master ensuite. The most sweeping views are from the cantilevered wing, where the glazing faces the estuary and slides open onto a terrace hanging over the garden. "We moved here because we wanted a complete lifestyle change from London," says Helen, 53. "We'd been working fiat out and had had enough." The couple wanted a more outdoor life "with much more ofaconnectiontothena~
environment", adds Paul, also 53. They need only look through all that glazing to connect with nature, but Paul, Helen and their daughter, Above, Bo, the Holly, 14, have taken to the Cornish family's sprocker coast lifestyle like the proverbial ducks to water, kayaking to the : (springer and ¡ cocker spaniel pub, taking their newly acquired cross), surveys dog, Bo, for beach walks and sailing inswnmer. the Fal estuary. Yet they never imagined they'd The extensive be thrust into the spotlight. Next glazing and week, you can see the house on the terraces have small screen in the launch episode been designed to for the second series of Channel4's make the most of the views Grand Designs: House of the Year. Run in conjunction with the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba), it celebrates the best in housing design. Pardey is delighted, especially because he has pulled off the challenging feat of creating a successful sequel: this isn't the first ¡ spectacular house to be built on this particular Cornish hillside. Just below the Owers's place is another modernist masterpiece, Creek Vean, built exactly 50 years ago by the young Richard Rogers and
Norman Foster. One of their first commissions, the sharp-angled design of glass and blockwork was considered ahead of its time in 1966 and still looks imposing today. "It was pretty intimidating having one of the most significant houses of the 1960s on the same slope," Pardey says. "I didn't want to copy it, but I wanted to acknowledge its presence." So he mirrored Creek Vean's ~ unusual design of two halves: it's also : a two-storey block, paired with a single-storey one and connected by a glazed corridor. "They complement one another," says Meredith Bowles, an architect who is on the judging panel for the House of the Year award. "They both have expansive glazing and a similar relationship to the water, but while the Owers's house is balanced on the top, Creek Vean is buried into the hillside. Theirs appears lightweight, the other heavyweight."
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13.11.2016 I 25 ~~~C§!i.iiiilill · We can see for i · miles Paul and : . · • : ; :
GET THE LOOK
Helen Owers with their daughter, Holly, right. Since moving In, the couple have quit the rat race and embraced an outdoors lifestyle
• New home, new rug: the couple commissioned the carpet In the living space, with colours that reflect the view through the glazing. Try the London-based designer Helen Yardley for bespoke handcrafted rugs. From £495 a sq metre; heleny.nlley.com
• The distinctive chimney, wh1ch doubles as a barbecue, is made from narrow Dutch bricks called Blrchridge, by Oaas Baksteen.
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£n5 per 1,000; allaboutbricks.co.uk
• A contemporary StOv woodburner Is set Into the wall. The glass front can be raised for the full open-fire effect. £2,000- £3,000; stuv.com • The kitchen worktop is made from an unusually long single piece of Kashmir White granite from a local merchant, Kernow Stone.
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£400 per sq metre; granite-worktops-comwallco.uk
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• The bespoke cabinets throughout ' the house are by the Truro-based joiners Roussel & Moore.
This dramatic L-shaped house on the Cornish coast is in the running for Grand Designs: House of the Year. lt has given its retired owners a new lease of life, they tell Cherry Hasten
From about £420 each; rousselandmoorejoinery.co.uk
• The Aplomb pendant lamps above the dining table are by the Italian lighting specialist Foscarlnl. supplied by Amos Lighting
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facade makes the "reveal" all the more spectacular when the door opens into a glazed atrium between the two wings and the creekside panorama unfurls before you. The decor is dehbera.tely minimal, to emphasise the spectacular views, with little furniture, a limited palette of materials and muted colours - a big change from the Victorian house in north London that the family left behind. "We didn't know we could live with this level of minimalism, nor how little furniture we'd need," Helen says. "In the end, we gave away nearly everything. There's no loft here to store anything." Most of the furniture has been made for the house, down to the bespokerugco~onedto
reflect the colours in the view. Like the living-space wing, the furniture floats - the beds and shelving units are cantilevered,
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£283; amosllghting.com
adding to the sense of airy lightness
l throughout. Paul and Helen had
The presence of an architecturally bold 1960s house nearby not only ~ent inspiration, but eased planning permission, which might have been harder to get elsewhere on the coast. So how does this cantilevered glass ~g stay safely on the hill, on a ~tch of coast that was blasted by 85mph winds a couple of winters ago? The structural anchor is the tall pale-brick chimney that comes ~traight up through the floor of the $itting room, where it houses a contemporary woodburner and a Hue, before rising out through the luof. The embodiment of form and (unction, it has an ingenious built-in barbecue at the base, in the sheltered al fresco dining spot under the floating wing. The drama of the creek side of the house is in total contrast to the mysterious blank walls of dark timber that loom as you come to the front door from the lane The impenetrable
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: plenty of input in the design and i detail of the fittings and furniture, l sourcing materials and working 1 with the architects, builders and : local craftsmen. Yet there were no classic Grand · Designs stories of disappearing : builders or disasters here. "It was 1 lovely working with people who · care," Helen says. "We had a good : local builder and a joinery firm who : made all our cupboards and shelving units. There's something special about : watching your bed being created." i "The scariest moment was ~ knocking down the 1970s house that ; was on this plot," Paul recalls. "I : couldn't help thinking that we were : destroying bricks and mortar that : we'd paid for." 1 The couple prefer not to discuss : how much they spent on creating : their forever house. "We know we're lucky to have been able to retire ' ~ early so we can enjoy all this," Helen , : says. "It's something we started ! thinking about 10 years ago, though l we never imagined that we'd live in : a home like this. I'm proud of the · house, but I'm also proud that we · actually did what we dreamt about we managed to change our lives." They must feel as if they're walking on air. 1
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• Grund Designs: House of the Year is on Channel 4, 9pm, on Thursday November 24; channel4.com
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