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Contents

October 2021

Regulars 13 EDITOR’S LETTER 19 KEVIN McCLOUD Our editor-at-

large on naming new house types 170 MY GRAND IDEA Architect

Sanya Polescuk eco-retrofitted a terraced north London home for her retirement

15 News 15 ARCHITECTURE UPDATE

A spotlight on recent projects 23 GRAND DESIGNS LIVE PREVIEW

Highlights of the forthcoming show running from 6-10 October at the NEC Birmingham 137 KITCHEN UPGRADE The latest designs, surfaces and appliances 151 BATHROOM EDIT Stylish new additions for the smallest room

23

137 MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 7

CONTENTS

Homes 39 TV HOUSE EXCLUSIVE Inside

the £2.5 million hilltop home bringing sculptural style to a quiet corner of Devon 52 CORNISH CONVERSION How a derelict farm outbuilding became an environmentally friendly family home 65 VICTORIAN REDESIGN A bold use of colour distinguishes this updated end-of-terrace house in Hackney, east London 79 SINGLE-STOREY REMODEL

Reworking the interior of this home in Los Angeles, USA, brought in much-needed light

52 Projects 103 GRAND BUILD Advice on finding

the best plot for your project 109 GRAND GUIDE Ten energy-efficient houses with eco-friendly designs 119 PROJECT FLOORING If you’re planning a self-build or extension, pay attention to what’s underfoot

65

130 BUYER’S GUIDE TO HOME SECURITY Solutions to protect

your home and possessions 141 PROJECT KITCHENS From

DIY to ex-display units, how to save money on your scheme 155 PROJECT BATHROOMS Add character with vintage fittings, exposed pipework – even a fireplace

109

141 8 OCTOBER 2021 /

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EDITORIAL

GO ONLINE Find more from Kevin McCloud and our exclusive TV house tours, plus inspiring self-builds, real-life extensions, conversions and home-improvement projects.

GRANDDESIGNSLIVE.COM

EDITOR K AREN STYLIANIDES ART DIRECTOR TONY PETERS CHIEF SUB-EDITOR MATT GL ASBY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR ALICE WESTGATE DIGITAL CONTENT EDITOR VICTORIA PURCELL CONTENT PRODUCER PAISLEY-ROSE TEDDER EDITOR-AT-LARGE KEVIN McCLOUD

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All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. All prices and information correct at time of going to press. Grand Designs magazine is published by Media 10 in association with Channel 4 and FremantleMedia Limited trading as Naked. Grand Designs is a registered trademark of FremantleMedia Limited. Based on the television programme Grand Designs, produced by Naked West (a Fremantle label) for Channel 4. Licensed by Fremantle (fremantle.com) ©2021. ISSN 1742-0695

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EDITOR’S LETTER

R

ichard Bacon MP has written a report, at the prime minister’s request, which delivers six recommendations aimed at improving the housing market, specifically for those who want to build their own homes. He doesn’t hold back in acknowledging the seriousness of the situation. ‘For decades we have not built enough houses – and this is tearing deep fissures into the fabric of our society.’

At the heart of his recommendations is the formation of a Custom & SelfBuild Housing Delivery Unit within the government housing agency Homes England (#MakingHomesHappen). Its mandate would be to enable the creation of serviced building plots on small and large sites and support the delivery of custom and self-build (CSB) homes across the country. ‘When we have fully opened

up the housing market and the planning process to the power of consumer choice, we will see more great places being developed which are warmly welcomed by their communities, with beautiful and more spacious houses, at keener prices – and that are better designed, better built, greener and which cost less to run, which enrich the lives of the people who live there.’

The ambition of this sentiment is laudable. Hopefully the report is the starting point for effective practical measures to help prospective self-builders, such as has been promised through the Help to Build scheme. Details of how this initiative will work are overdue. But in the coming weeks we should discover exactly how the government will make it easier and more affordable for people to build their own homes through lower deposit mortgages.

COVER PHOTO MARK BOLTON

K AREN ST YLIANIDES , EDITOR

PHOTOGRAPHY ANTHONY GREENWOOD

@StylianidesK

Kim and Rich Butler turned a derelict farm building into a family home. Turn to page 36 for more

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 13

new houses | extensions | refurbishments | basement excavations | swimming pools

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NEWS

Architecture update Original projects to inspire your own self-build or renovation

City slicker

This impressive new house stands on the site of a former garage in the Thorburn Square conservation area of Southwark, south London. It has three bedrooms, measures 126sqm and has two storeys plus a basement reached via a central staircase. Satish Jassal Architects set the building back from the street edge and the retained boundary wall, sinking it into the plot and lowering the groundfloor level by 1m. The vertical red bricks draw the eye upwards and contrast with the golden tones of the oak panelling that frames the windows. The build cost was £600,000. (satishjassal.co.uk)

Market research by Insulation4less reveals that internet searches for loft conversion ideas increased by 186 per cent from May to June 2021. Most people want to turn their loft into an extra bedroom, with a bathroom second and walk-in wardrobe searches coming third.

Home offices came fourth. (insulation4less. co.uk)

Making the connection A new sustainability-focused design and construction showroom has opened in Marylebone, central London. Edge, or Eco Design Green Environment, is a three-storey resource centre connecting eco-conscious suppliers and builders with architects and interior designers. It aims to promote manufacturers who prioritise carefully sourced raw materials, reduce emissions, reuse resources and recycle waste. (edgelondon.eco)

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 15

NEWS

Architecture update Side hustle Ashton Architecture (ashtonarchitecture.com) created extra space in a three-bedroom Victorian villa in Sunbury-upon-Thames, Middlesex, with new additions focusing on the side elevation overlooking the garden. As well as a loft bedroom with en suite, it built a 12sqm timber frame, Kebony-clad (kebony.co.uk) garden room with exposed timber ceiling beams.

A delicate balance

Domestic harmony Indoor games A 1940s sports hall in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has been transformed into a three-bedroom home with 615sqm of living space. When the owner and Masa Architects (masaarchitects.com) saw its walls and ceilings stripped bare, they resolved to retain and highlight the supporting concrete beams and expose the brickwork. The windows were made bigger to bring in more light, and pieces of freestanding furniture divide the open-plan areas instead of partition walls. Exterior insulation and metal cladding by SCH Holland (sch-holland.nl) brought the building up to modern standards.

16 OCTOBER 2021 /

MAGAZINE.COM

Now more than ever, our homes must be multifunctional spaces for work, rest, study, exercise and entertainment – often at the same time. In Inspiring Family Homes, edited by Milk magazine (Gestalten, £40, 24 August), a series of parents and children from across the globe reveal how their shared spaces combine beautiful décor with clever design. (uk.gestalten.com)

WORDS CAROLINE RODRIGUES PHOTOGRAPHY RICHARD CHIVERS, AGNESE SANVITO, JOSH JOHNSON, TIM VAN DE VELDE

Inspired by the owner’s desire for a glass house, Efficiency Lab for Architecture designed three glazed boxes nestling into the cliffs of the Telluride box canyon in Colorado, USA. Avalanche barriers were constructed on the uphill side, while a permanent soilretention system, including anchors tied into the mountainside, creates level platforms for the 650sqm six-bedroom house. Guest bedrooms are on the lowest floor, with open-plan living spaces above and three family bedrooms at the top. (efficiencylab.org)

As award winning architects and designers we aspire to create extraordinary buildings and spaces for our clients, sometimes from the most difficult of design briefs. Central to our philosophy is that good design should reflect the needs of our clients and respond to the surrounding environment.

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EXCLUSIVE COLUMN

Kevin

McCloud What’s in a name? Our editor-at-large says naming is the way we make sense of things, including our homes

T

he history of understanding our world is the history of names.

From Linnaeus’s classification for plants and fish to the nomenclature of railway locomotives, humankind has delighted in the organisation of everything around us by naming it. It may not mean much to you, but to me 4472 is a number wrapped in coal smuts and the romance of heavy engineering powered by steam, because it’s the number of the Flying Scotsman locomotive. A cloud is just a cloud until you discover the subtle differences between altocumulus and cirrostratus. Name something and only then can it take its place in the order of the universe. We name it to tame it.

The classification of ideas into hierarchies and subsets is also a way of ordering and clarifying an otherwise chaotic world. I recently heard a passionate defence from a horticulturalist about the use of Latin names for plants.

He first made the point that flowers and trees may have names in our native tongue, but that those vernacular names will vary from region to region. He also made the point that Latin, being a dead language, will not suffer the same wandering changes in meaning that spoken languages experience over time. And he declared his enjoyment of being able to WhatsApp his plant-loving friends in Japan in stuttering Japanese while sharing a fluent understanding of tree peony species.

But never mind the plants. I have had a more important task in hand:

naming and classifying the projects and programmes in the current series of Grand Designs and House of the Year.

I do this partly for fun and partly for journalists who want a catchy micro description for the television listings. In either case, the discipline of distilling a complex idea down to a paragraph that can be summed up in a headline is enjoyable, but it can also be fiendishly hard.

So I need help and, in truth, my series editor Ned Williams steps in to devise the categories for House of the Year. He structures the series into programmes with titles like Houses That Surprise You or Urban Houses with Attitude or Houses That Don’t Correspond to Their Postcodes. I work on the more cartoony descriptions.

I’ve been doing this for so long now that I’ve built my own tabloid lexicon of building types. Ten years ago I tried categorising British new domestic architecture and found it hard because we had only just entered the new millennium and new century. Design, style and taste were too busy digesting what happened in the 20th century to make sense of the 21st, let alone forge

Name something and only then can it take its place in the order of the universe

an identity that belongs in the here and now. To an extent that is still the case.

We are still defining ourselves and our homes in relation to the great traditions of modernism and post-war 1950s/1960s progressivism, while the next generation of architects and designers are being inspired by the bush-hammered 1970s concrete of the Barbican Centre.

Britain’s design and architecture culture, in pretty well every century for the past 600 years, has only really got going in the second decade. New ideas take some time to emerge and most of the first few years in every century are spent navel-watching and digesting the hubris of the previous decades. However, we are now dipping our toes in the third decade of this century, so we ought to feel able to get on with it and properly name the names.

We’re past the understandable rash of Crisis Houses, those homes that are never sure of where they’re going because they’re too busy looking backwards. Which means fewer copycat white modernist boxes which, after all, are only reproducing what is now a historical style of architecture as respected as Palladianism or Arts & Crafts. Though on the show we will likely feature one during

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 19

EXCLUSIVE COLUMN

Elaine and Micah Jones built this long house in County Down, Northern Ireland

This romantic home in Herne Hill, south London, includes a Parisian-style courtyard garden

Performance Artists are theatrical buildings with a dramatic opening number or tricks up their sleeve mirrors, deception and cover. Whether painted black like a shadow or buried under a wildflower meadow, Stealth Houses are Harry Potter homes hiding under an invisibility cloak.

And from left of field has come Cosy Architecture: buildings which are shy, retiring, introspective and more likely to shop locally. A Cosy Home will encourage you to meditate and then make you a nice cup of

lemon balm tea. It will connect you to a wildflower meadow or a sunset.

A Cosy Home will probably, in a slow, energy-efficient and modest way, be a template for the family housing of the future and it will not need to either name or tame its contents or its environment because it does not pursue order. It pursues romance.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of these.

ARE YOU PLANNING A ?

TV’s Grand Designs is looking for exciting projects to feature on the programme.

Does your build fit the bill? To apply, please visit granddesigns.tv

20 OCTOBER 2021 /

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PHOTOGRAPHY DARREN CHUNG, BRADLEY QUINN

a series as a touchstone or constant unchanging benchmark.

That’s not to say that the odd monumental I Have Arrived! home doesn’t spring up from time to time – usually on top of a hill. These are mostly mid- or late-life crisis houses, buildings that are going to look out of place no matter where or when they’re built. The difference is they’re now Passivhaus standard with some new experimental technology, the building equivalent of a self-parking Tesla car. The sameness is that they are all built by men.

Hairy Homes abound these days, designs which are fuzzy around the edges, complex in layout and built of unusual materials. And against these have been pitched those sleek houses, the Sugar Cubes of thoughtful developed modernism, and the Jenga Block homes, fractured and thrusting and nearly always made of long, expensive Danish bricks.

Some of the Sugar Cubes and Jenga Blocks are also Techno Bling homes that celebrate state-of-the-art tech, the future and all things that can go wrong. Some will mistakenly transmogrify into NCP Homes, built to accommodate a dozen cars while housing just two people obsessed by light, space and bi-fold doors.

Some of the properties we feature on House of the Year are Performance Artists, theatrical buildings with a dramatic opening number or tricks up their sleeve, that change or move, slide up and down on tracks or perform aerial acrobatics. Others will be Conjurors, all smoke and

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EVENT GUIDE Whether you are embarking on a renovation, building a home, making a few improvements or updating your garden, you’ll find everything you need to make your project a success at Grand Designs Live

BIRMINGHAM NEC 6-10 OCTOBER 2021

SEE US AT STAND B53

Come and visit us at Grand Designs Birmingham, 6th -10th October, stand B53.

Until then, why not design your own Solidor today at solidor.co.uk solidor.co.uk

BIRMINGHAM NEC 6-10 OCTOBER 2021

Self-build simplified When you’re looking for ideas, supplies or advice for your construction project, the Grand Build hall is the place to be Kevin’s Green Heroes Kevin McCloud chooses some of most innovative eco-friendly products to showcase in the Green Heroes area, sponsored by Reynaers at Home. This year there will be five new designs along with five from previous years that are now in production. One returning hero is ecoBirdy, first featured at Grand Designs Live in 2019, which designs and manufactures environmentally friendly furniture made from recycled plastic waste. Based in Antwerp, Belgium, the company has created a system that goes from the collection and recycling of plastic toys through to design and production. (ecobirdy.com)

Who’s on stage?

Take a seat in the Grand Theatre to see Kevin McCloud, along with Grand Designers from the TV series and a host of industry experts, live on stage. They’ll be taking part in inspiring seminars and dynamic debates.

Design solutions Founded by chartered architectural technologist Kris Baxter in 2008, Studio 11 Architecture is a collective of creative designers producing distinctive architecture with a commitment to delivering your vision. It takes pride in understanding what makes your house a home by getting to know you and your aspirations. As a multidisciplinary practice with an in-house team of architectural designers, engineers and energy consultants, Studio 11 Architecture can create a design solution for any concept you dream up.

Come and talk to its planning specialists and designers about your wishes during the show, and find out how to make them a reality. See us on stand B58B. (studio11architecture.co.uk)

BOOK TICKETS FOR JUST £11 *

The beauty of brick Established in the UK over 20 years ago, AAB is the UK subsidiary of leading Dutch brick producer De Rijswaard Baksteen. The company supplies more than 100 brick types, but its range of building products doesn’t stop at standard options. AAB also offers a comprehensive list of cut-to-order specials, including plinth brickwork, turning brickwork through non-90-degree corners and concealment of construction elements.

Pop along to see the latest innovations and a wide selection of colour and texture options, including the unique glazed range from Spanish manufacturer Mora Ceramics.

See us on stand B7. (aab.build)

Comprehensive expertise Acres Architects is a multiple award-winning, RIBA-chartered architecture practice. Established in 2008, it specialises in working with clients to help them build their own luxury homes, aiming to minimise the stress involved and avoiding technical jargon so they feel fully involved. With a head office in Nottingham, plus studios in Manchester and London, its team of architects and technologists can support projects nationwide. The practice has a great deal of experience working on Grade II listed buildings, Paragraph 80 projects, barn conversions, new-builds and home renovations, and can also support you with interior and landscape design. At the show you’ll be able to try the Virtual Reality suite, which is a fantastic tool for helping clients understand a new space.

See us on stand B27. (acresarchitects.co.uk)

Groundwork expertise

Sponsor showcase With indoor air quality a key concern for many Grand Designs Live visitors, Airflow will be showcasing its wide portfolio of ventilation and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) systems, including the Adroit range and high-performance extractor fans to help make homes healthier places to live. See us on stand B76B. (airflow.com)

Dragon Drilling is one of the UK` s leading drilling contractors specialising in water and ground-source heating borehole installations, site investigations and monitoring services, and landfill excavations. As a chartered environmental engineer, it provides expert advice on all land drilling processes and regulatory requirements.

Dragon Drilling’s fleet is fitted with patented modifications that make its equipment faster, with lower emissions, than other drilling rigs, to ensure it performs best for its customers and the environment. Its wealth of expertise combines with the latest advancements in technology to fulfil the requirements of each new project. See us on stand B18. (dragondrilling.co.uk)

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Klöeber’s ÜberSlide sliding door combines slimline style and security, from £7,640

Renovation ideas You’ll find plenty of inspiration for your project, from kitchen and bathroom suppliers to experts of all kinds

Custom-made glass For bespoke glazing solutions, including bi-folding, sliding and French doors, rooflights, fixed glazed elements and the award-winning FunkyFront door, come to the Klöeber stand. The company offers exceptional customer service, including an initial consultation and showroom visit, plus close liaison with architects and build teams. A site survey guarantees an efficient installation service, carried out by Klöeber’s in-house fitters. See us on stand B34. (kloeber.co.uk)

Attention to detail Fitted kitchens from Kütchenhaus are built to the highest standards and feature soft-close drawers, clever corner units and more.

The company has spent more than 70 years investing in kitchen technology, research and product development to create designs that are built to last. Drop by for all the ideas and inspiration you need to create a stylish, practical kitchen. See us on stand K26. (uk.kutchenhaus.com)

Advice centre Sponsored by Airflow, Ask an Expert is a free one-stop shop for project advice and information, with specialists in architecture, design, finance and sustainability offering free one-to-one consultations. Bring your plans, budgets and ideas along for a detailed assessment.

Advance booking is highly recommended.

Visit granddesignslive.com.

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BIRMINGHAM NEC 6-10 OCTOBER 2021

A sense of wellbeing Thomas de Cruz Architects & Designers is a small practice specialising in contemporary homes, with an emphasis on imaginative interiors and creative lighting. Visit the company’s stand to find out how an uplifting scheme of serene spaces filled with natural light promotes health and happiness.

Come and say hello and discover how Thomas de Cruz Architects & Designers transforms everyday home life. See us on stand B33. (thomasdecruz.com)

Sponsor showcase With the latest Siemens bean-to-cup coffee machines, which have intuitive controls, you can select from up to 30 international varieties at the touch of a button. Choose a cortado from Columbia or a flat white from Australia or even a verlängerter from Austria. The Siemens iAroma system ensures optimum preparation and perfect flavour every time. If you prefer to personalise your coffee, simply adjust the settings to make your ideal brew. The contemporary design of Siemens machines ensures they look great on the worksurface, ready for your morning coffee or an after-dinner cup with friends and family. See us on stand K36. (siemens-home.bsh-group.com)

Join the campaign Grand Designs and Quooker are delighted to announce the launch of the Save Water campaign, which aims to encourage all of us to reduce our use of this precious resource.

Head to the Quooker stand to see its full range of taps and find out how you could be in with the chance of winning the latest model. See us on stand K23A. (quooker.co.uk)

Inspiring glazing Whether you’re embarking on a new-build or want to transform your existing home, Express Bi-folding Doors supplies marketleading products tailored to your requirements. The company’s bespoke bi-folding and sliding doors, and aluminium glazing products, provide excellent performance that lasts for many years. Browse the range at Grand Designs Live, where you’ll find all the inspiration you need to create the home of your dreams.

See us on stand B46. (expressbifolds.co.uk)

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SEE US AT STAND G32A

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BIRMINGHAM NEC 6-10 OCTOBER 2021 This dining room is in Ivy Grey from Crown Paints’ Crafted by Crown range, £32 for 2.5 litres

ABOVE A bespoke curved oak staircase with copper spindles rises up through the glass atrium to an elegant balustrade that encircles a landing area. This provides space for a piano and leads directly to the living space

Inspiration for your home improvement You’ll find plenty of decorating and design ideas at the event, along with opportunities to buy the latest stylish products

Colour inspiration Crown Paints has more than 200 years of paint-making expertise.

Always at the leading edge of colour trends, Crown delivers a little extra both in terms of aesthetics and performance. There will be lots of opportunities to explore Crown’s amazing ranges as it is sponsoring The Great British Box Room Competition. Discover its bestselling Elle Decoration collection, alongside a new launch, Crafted by Crown, in the competition room sets. (crownpaints.co.uk)

Join the sleep quality experiment Many mattresses are now bought online and, because they only need replacing every seven to ten years, it can be difficult to determine your requirements in terms of comfort and support. To help you find the right option, the International Sleep Charity is conducting The Sleep Quality Experiment. Visitors to Grand Designs Live Birmingham will be invited to take part in a blind test featuring some of the UK’s leading mattress brands. The make, price, style and materials will all be hidden so that testers select their favourite based on comfort alone. Afterwards, the most and least favourite mattresses will be revealed. Some lucky participants will also receive the mattress of their choice. (internationalsleepcharity.org)

BOOK TICKETS FOR JUST £11 *

The Great British Box Room Competition An exciting new feature at Grand Designs Live Birmingham this year is The Great British Box Room Competition, sponsored by Crown Paints. Six interior design experts compete to devise schemes that transform the smallest of spaces into something useful and stylish. Visitors can browse the resulting room sets for inspiration and to discover which companies supplied the products. The winner is selected by a panel including Kevin McCloud and Rachael White from the KLC School of Design, then announced on the Grand Theatre stage. (klc.co.uk)

Raise it up Levitas Design makes furniture that appears to float, blending cutting-edge engineering with contemporary design. Its beds can include elements such as under-bed LED lighting, floor-to-ceiling headboard panels, and floating bedside tables. They can be any height, can fit any size mattress and can be upholstered in most fabrics.

Levitas Design also makes steel supports for elevated kitchen worksurfaces, floor-to-ceiling acoustic walls for cinema rooms, and bespoke furniture. At Grand Designs Live Levitas Design will showcase the new Slimline floating bed and bedside tables. As well as offering its entire range at trade prices, there’s an extra 20 per cent off all levitating beds bought during the show. See us at stand L41B. (levitasdesign.co.uk)

Sponsor showcase

Fitness anywhere Improve your fitness with cardio and strength equipment plus a digital cloud-based platform from Technogym. Choose from a range of options including treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical and rowing machines, and strength equipment designed for home use. Technogym’s connected smart equipment, digital services, on-demand training experiences and apps allow you to access a personalised training programme at home, at the gym and on the go. See us at stand L48A. (technogym.com)

For more than 15 years Lexus has pioneered vehicle electrification, culminating in hybrid and electric cars that are exciting, efficient and durable. Near-silent engines provide dynamic driving experiences while producing zero emissions. World-leading tech makes everything safe, seamless and luxurious. View the all-electric UX300e and other Lexus Electrified models at the show. See us at stand K34. (lexus.co.uk)

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LUXURY BESPOKE GARDEN ROOMS, GARDEN STUDIOS, GARDEN OFFICES...

Our luxury Bespoke Garden Rooms are extremely high quality & thermally efficient. They are multifunctional and useable all year round.

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Get the most out of your garden with a bespoke Breeze House, £POA

Transform your outdoor space The Grand Gardens hall, sponsored by Hydropool, is full of innovative and imaginative ideas, and has experts ready to provide advice Complete relaxation

The place to be Turn your garden into a destination with a Breeze House. It enables you to be closer to nature and make luxury part of your everyday life.

Each garden building in the Breeze House collection is handcrafted in Britain from quality sustainable materials. There are ten designs to choose from, along with optional extras such as canvas panels and infrared heaters. See us on stand G35. (breezehouse.co.uk)

Head to Hydropool’s stand to see the world’s only self-cleaning hot tubs and swim spas.

You can also check out the Serenity range, with new features such as Weatherseal insulation, Unibody frame, Edgewater shell and Clearspring filtration. On a budget? There will be exclusive show offers and discounts, as well as the chance to have a VIP consultation.

See us on stand G34. (hydropoolspas.co.uk)

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BIRMINGHAM NEC 6-10 OCTOBER 2021

Stylish shading The Great British Awning & Blind Company has been transforming outdoor spaces for more than 40 years. All its patio awnings, automated blinds and garden pergolas are aesthetically pleasing, practical and weatherproof to withstand the British climate. There is an extensive collection of quality designs to choose from, in a range of colours, styles and finishes to suit all tastes and budgets. The company’s no-obligation design consultation ensures the perfect solution for your needs. See us on stand G32A. (thegreatbritishawningandblindcompany.co.uk)

Glazing innovation For almost 60 years Anglian has been at the forefront of UK home improvements, offering an extensive range of double-glazed windows, doors, conservatories and orangeries.

The firm is extremely proud to be the headline sponsor of Grand Designs Live Birmingham. Find out more about its full range of products online. (anglianhome.co.uk)

Wildlife rescue Upgrade your garden Based at the Yew Tree Farm Craft Centre in Warwickshire, The Garden Furniture Centre was established in 2000 as a family-run business supplying indoor and outdoor furniture to locals. Today it has a 900sqm showroom and an online catalogue offering more than 2,000 products to customers across the UK and beyond. See us on stand G28B. (gardenfurniturecentre.co.uk)

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) started its mission in 1889, and today it’s needed more than ever. At the show the charity will demonstrate how you can take action to aid nature’s recovery. Stop by to learn more about its brilliant work.

See us on stand G18A. (rspb.org.uk)

Home from home Using natural materials in bold, geometric shapes, Torp creates and manufactures contemporary lodges. Whether holiday home or granny annexe, a Torp building is designed to capture great views and plenty of natural light. Compact and comfortable, the highly insulated lodge has an open-plan kitchen diner, ample storage, a main bedroom with en-suite bathroom and balcony, child-friendly bedrooms, and space for outdoor seating. See us on stand G33E. (torplodge.co.uk)

* QUOTE

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Bespoke Staircases

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BIRMINGHAM NEC 6-10 OCTOBER 2021

Visitor information All the details you’ll need before your trip to Grand Designs Live at the NEC Birmingham Opening hours ● 10am – 5pm: 6, 7 and 10 October

● 10am – 6pm: 8 and 9 October

How to visit the event Grand Designs Live takes place in Hall 5 of the NEC Birmingham.

Rail Birmingham International is just a five-minute walk from the show entrance.

Road Use the postcode B40 1NT. Once you arrive at the NEC complex, follow the signs for Grand Designs Live. Pre-book your car-parking space on the NEC website, thenec.co.uk.

Venue information and facilities For information about the venue including disabled access, cloakrooms, and food and drink, visit thenec.co.uk. For all other information, including Covid-19 guidelines, visit granddesignslive.com.

● How to book advance tickets Take advantage of this special offer by visiting granddesignslive.com and clicking on the tickets tab. Enter the code PREVIEW at the checkout to secure your tickets for just £11 each.

This is a saving of up to £9.* *T&Cs Offer is for a standard ticket to Grand Designs Live Birmingham 2021 only and must be booked in advance of midnight on 9 October 2021. A transaction fee applies per order. This saving is based on a weekend ticket, bought at the show.

@granddesignstv HEADLINE SPONSOR

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WHAT DOES YOUR HOME SAY ABOUT YOU?

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HOMES TV HOUSE

Bold ambition The desire to build a landmark home on a Devon hilltop led to this complex and daring sculptural house WORDS JAYNE DOWLE PHOTOGR APHY MARK BOLTON

A curved path leads to the front door, which is hidden among the shards. These zinc-wrapped monoliths will soften into the landscape as the garden around them matures

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 39

W

hen architectural concept designer Mick O’Connor met Joe and Claire Priday in 2014 he was expecting to discuss renovating their bungalow just outside Exeter, Devon. But it soon become apparent that a far more exciting project was on the cards. Joe, 37, the managing director of a financial services company, wanted to build a new house on the adjoining paddock for him and his wife Claire, 42, and their three young children: Jasmine, ten, Evan, five, and three-year-old Rory.

Joe and Claire gave Mick, 71, free rein to create a house that would sit on the exposed site. Inspired by the rocky tors of nearby Dartmoor, Mick envisaged a design that consisted of a series of geometric shardshaped exterior walls set in a jagged 70m-long line that would follow the contours of the hill. ‘Even in our wildest dreams we never thought we were going to get planning permission,’ says Joe. ‘So when it

ABOVE To create a grand entrance, the pivoting front door is around 6ft wide and almost 10ft tall. It’s deeply recessed to provide cover from the rain 40 OCTOBER 2021 /

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IN BRIEF –

LOCATION Huxham, Devon TYPE OF PROPERTY Single-storey house BEDROOMS 5 PROJECT STARTED September 2018 PROJECT FINISHED June 2021 SIZE 613sqm including garage LAND COST Already owned BUILD COST £2.5 million

HOMES TV HOUSE A garage for the family’s cars sits alongside the house and mirrors its style

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HOMES TV HOUSE

ABOVE As elsewhere in the house, the triple-glazed windows in the hallway are frameless to allow uninterrupted views of the garden. Wood-effect porcelain tiles run throughout the ground floor

came through, we just had to take the opportunity and jump right in with both feet.’

The local authority initially pushed Mick to nestle this new addition inconspicuously into the landscape, but he had other ideas. ‘This was originally a Paragraph 55 design, which has to be innovative and of exceptional quality,’ he explains. ‘I said, “Well, it is on top of a hill, so I should give it the best presence I can.”’

Taking their inspiration from sculpture and the surrounding countryside, Mick and his son Alex, 39, an architectural assistant and product designer, looked 42 OCTOBER 2021 /

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at ways to get more natural light into the building. ‘That’s how we came up with the shards,’ says Mick. ‘One of the things I really like about the house is that, from the inside, you can see their edges through the windows. It creates a connection to the landscape.’

His design required deep concrete pad foundations to support a gigantic timber frame. This consisted of 282 glulam timbers bolted together with industrialscale steel brackets to form a wooden skeleton reaching 7.5m high. The walls would be made from 34 insulated timber shards, which are clad in 1,350sqm of zinc and

‘One of the things I really like is that, from the inside, you can see the edges of the shards through the windows’

interspersed with 46 equally complex glazed panels. From the outset, the sheer intricacy of the structure taxed the builders, the engineers, the suppliers and the budget.

There was also a tension between the idea of living in a sculpture and the practicalities of it as a family home.

‘The official line is that we are living in a sculpture,’ says Claire. ‘But it’s not just a sculpture to me – it’s my home, somewhere we will grow older together. At the end of the day, it’s our house and it has to work for the whole family.’

To ensure everyone was happy, Mick and the team created a diagram to establish which rooms were

ABOVE The sunken living area has walls painted in De Nimes by Farrow & Ball. A corner sofa is teamed with mismatched armchairs

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 43

F L O O R PL A N

GYM

GAMES ROOM

KITCHEN

DINING AREA

LIVING ROOM

STUDY

STORE BEDROOM

BEDROOM

PLANT ROOM

UTILITY

LAUNDRY BEDROOM

BEDROOM

BEDROOM

The Bulthaup kitchen cost more than £100,000 and includes Dekton worksurfaces chosen for their durability

EN SUITE DRESSING ROOM

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LEFT A high-spec hob and downdraft extractor are set into the worksurface beside a solid wood breakfast bar, which is angled to echo the building’s geometry RIGHT One of Claire’s favourite features, the electric fire in the dining space has a warm glow that reaches the adjacent seating area

needed and where they should go. They considered how each person would use the spaces and move between them. They also took into account the views, the orientation of the house in relation to the sun and the outside space. Planting helps to define the entrances.

The main entrance, at the rear of the building, fans out into a hallway. To the left is the living room leading onto a terrace with views across the valley, then the kitchen and dining area. Next to this are the gym and the games room. To the right is the study, then five bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, including Joe and Claire’s room at the far end, which has its own 46 OCTOBER 2021 /

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‘The official line is that we are living in a sculpture. But it’s not just a sculpture to me – it’s my home’

HOMES TV HOUSE

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 47

Doors lead from Joe and Claire’s bedroom into an en-suite bathroom and a dressing room

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HOMES TV HOUSE

The couple’s en suite has a glazed corner with views over the valley and a shardshaped shower screen

dressing area. All the ancillary spaces – including a utility room, laundry, store and plant room – are tucked into the back of the house.

Throughout the building, the ceilings are a little loftier than in standard houses, measuring up to 3.6m high in places. ‘That’s the same height as the rooms you find in grand country houses,’ says Mick. ‘But it doesn’t feel like a big factory, barn or warehouse. It is definitely on a human scale.’

Mick likens walking through the house to taking a stroll through Stonehenge, where a different outdoor view opens up every few steps. ‘The biophilia element – using nature in design – is one of my favourite aspects of the project,’ he explains.

The finished home is every bit as dramatic as Joe and Claire had planned, even though the original budget spiralled from £835,000 to around £2.5 million. And despite its sci-fi exterior and luxurious interior, it works well for them all. ‘We added the landscaping to soften it up,’ says Claire. ‘And we have worked really hard to make sure it’s a family home inside.’

Joe is completely satisfied by the house, which is rare for someone so ambitious. ‘This is a legacy project,’ he explains. ‘I want to be able to say, “That was me.

That was us.” We have created something rare and very special.’

S U PPL I E R S – PROJECT TEAM Architectural designers Mick and Alex O’Connor at Squirrel Design (squirrel-design.co.uk) Main contractor Valley Construction (valleyconstructionservices.co.uk) Structural engineer TWP (twpeng.com) Landscape consultant Redbay Design (redbaydesign.co.uk) Renewable energy consultant 5D Group (5dgroup.co.uk) Environmental consultant O’Neill Ecology (oneillecology.co.uk) Interior designers Donna Maddicott (07739 091870), Idesign (idesign-uk.co.uk) STRUCTURE Timber frame All Timber Frames (alltimberframes.co.uk) Zinc cladding SPS Roofing (spsroofingltd.co.uk) Doors RK Door Systems (rkdoorsystems.co.uk)

Door installation Nordic Designs (nordicdesigns.co.uk) Home automation DB Digital (db-digital.co.uk) Electrics and plumbing WTR Plumbing, Heating & Electrical Contractors (wtr-ltd.co.uk) FIXTURES AND FITTINGS Kitchen and bathrooms Sapphire Spaces (sapphirespaces.co.uk) Flooring La Fabrico (lafabrico.uk) Paint Farrow & Ball (farrow-ball.com) Curtains and blinds Drapes 2 (curtainsandblind.co.uk) Lighting Amos Lighting (amoslighting.co.uk) Fireplace Stoves Are Us (stovesareus.co.uk) FURNITURE AND ACCESSORIES Furniture Chaplins (chaplins.co.uk)

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 49

HOMES TV HOUSE

Every bedroom in the house, including this guest room, has its own asymmetrical terrace, enhancing the zigzag footprint of the building

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HOMES CORNWALL

IN BRIEF –

LOCATION Near Falmouth, Cornwall TYPE OF PROPERTY Converted barn BEDROOMS 3 PROJECT STARTED May 2019 PROJECT FINISHED May 2020 SIZE 178sqm LAND COST £350,000 BUILD COST £422,000

In an ancient land Deep in the Cornish countryside, an old barn and hay store lay forgotten and decaying until one couple reinvented them as an eco-friendly home WORDS ALICE WESTGATE PHOTOGR APHY ANTHONY GREENWOOD

The timber cladding on the extension was charred using shou sugi ban, the Japanese method of burning and preserving wood MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 53

T

he lure of Cornwall’s wild landscapes and beautiful beaches drew Kim and Rich Butler halfway across the globe.

‘We promised ourselves that if we came back to live in England we would move to the county,’ says Kim. The couple met while they were living in Thailand and working as scuba diving instructors. ‘The Cornish climate is pretty tropical, and we wanted our children to grow up by the sea and to be happy in the water,’ she says.

But Kim, 38, and Rich, 44, were frustrated by the lack of suitable properties on the market. ‘When we came across a 42-acre site with a cluster of outbuildings we asked the vendor if it could be sold as different lots,’ says Rich. ‘They agreed, so we bought 12 acres and four farm buildings, all of which had planning consent. It was a very lucky find.’

The couple decided to tackle the main barn first. The low stone building had an attached two-storey hay store to one side, and its upper level was reached via an external staircase. ‘There was still hay inside, along with various car parts, sofas, tyres and hundreds of plastic sacks filled with spent mushroom compost from a nearby farm,’

ABOVE Opening on to a deck overlooking the garden, the sliding doors are deeply recessed to provide shade from the sun as well as rain cover

54 OCTOBER 2021 /

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HOMES CORNWALL

A narrow glass link draws sunshine into a potentially dark area of the living room.

Vintage furniture includes an Ercol sofa and a filing cabinet bought on eBay

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says Kim. Big sections of the roof had caved in, and the upper floor had collapsed.

Kim, who has a background in kitchen design and works for a charitable children’s adventure centre, knew it had the makings of a home. Rich, an audio engineer who teaches at the nearby university, needed a little more convincing. ‘All I could see was leaning walls that needed underpinning,’ he admits.

The existing planning permission covered the simplest of conversions, but a more exciting design took shape when the couple consulted Kast Architects. ‘At first the practice were too busy to start right away, but then preliminary drawings arrived,’ recalls Kim. ‘It turned out they were inspired by the plot and couldn’t wait to get going.’

Lead architect David Jones loved the barn’s private location surrounded by ancient hedgerows and mature trees. ‘It had a secret charm and felt wild and forgotten,’ he says. ‘Kim and Rich asked us to design something sensitive to all this and not over-polished.’

The lofty kitchen and dining space is high enough to accommodate an internal staircase to the upper hay store Though they all wanted to retain as much of the old structure as possible, the low ceiling in the single-storey section – designed for animals rather than humans – felt restrictive. The solution was to raise the roof by 1m and to fill the gap between this and the original stonework with charred larch. ‘From the outside, it’s clear which part of the building is old and which part has been added,’ says David. ‘This approach seemed to tell the story of the barn’s evolution more honestly, and it won over the planners.’

The result is a lofty kitchen and dining space that is high enough for an internal staircase giving access to the upper hay store, which has a bedroom each for Juno, six, and Noah, nine, plus a family bathroom. Kim and Rich’s bedroom is directly below.

Opening off the kitchen-diner is a charred larch-clad extension with 7m-long sliding doors leading from the living room into the garden. A glazed section measuring just 50cm wide marks the point where the old structure meets the new. ‘I absolutely love the look of the glass against the stonework and the way that the granite is washed by the sun,’ says Kim. Keen to make the barn as eco-friendly as possible, the couple installed an air-source heat pump and huge amounts of insulation, plus cabling on the extension’s flat 56 OCTOBER 2021 /

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All the rooms in the house lead off the new kitchen-diner, which has a materials palette of concrete, plywood and stone

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F L O O R PL A N S

BATHROOM

BEDROOM

BEDROOM

FIRST FLOOR

WC

UTILITY

KITCHEN LIVING ROOM

DINING AREA

EN SUITE

BEDROOM

GROUND FLOOR

The roof trusses are made from Douglas fir and the lighting includes a chandelier Kim crafted from a hula hoop wrapped in bare-bulb pendants RIGHT Raising the roof by a metre made space for the plywood staircase. It leads to the children’s rooms on the upper storey

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 59

In the main bedroom, the wall above the bed was whitewashed for added brightness and to hide a patchwork of stone and concrete RIGHT Graphic floor tiles are the focus in the family bathroom, with black grouting and brassware continuing the monochrome palette

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HOMES CORNWALL

The house is in such a remote spot that Kim and Rich toyed with the idea of making it completely off-grid roof so they can add solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in the future. The high thermal mass of the concrete floor acts as a radiator in winter and provides a cooling surface in summer, while a mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system keeps the indoor air fresh and warm.

The house is so remote they considered going totally off-grid, with water provided by a stream in the garden, but the cost of a filtration system was so high they decided to bring mains water across the three neighbouring fields instead. They did add their own sewage treatment plant, though, plus a sprinkler system in case of fire.

Kast project managed the build, holding weekly meetings to discuss progress. ‘We felt extremely lucky to have such a great team involved throughout the whole process,’ says Rich. The only hitch came when a winter of incessant rain repeatedly filled up the hole that the main contractors were digging for the sewage treatment plant. Moving it to higher ground added a few weeks to the schedule, but the couple’s finances stayed on track thanks to the detailed costings that had been drawn up by Kim and Rich’s quantity surveyor. ‘It was reassuring to be able to monitor the budget so closely,’ says Rich. ‘Our total spend was always under control.’

Kim and Rich were also heavily involved, labouring on site to remove some of the concrete pointing and level the garden. Kim even charred every single plank of larch herself, a job that took more than two-and-a-half months. ‘We wanted to put our own energy into the house,’ she says. ‘Making our mark on the building has given us both a huge sense of satisfaction.’

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The position and size of the original windows and door openings were retained, and the old staircase still stands to the right of the two-storey former hay store

S U PPL I E R S – PROJECT TEAM Architect Kast Architects (kastarchitects.com) Main contractor 3C Construction (07403 155945) Structural engineer Entos Consulting (entosconsulting.co.uk) Quantity surveyor Ed Crossley & Associates (eca-qs.com)

ABOVE The living room extension aligns with the kitchen-diner, which has six rooflights to boost light levels. The couple have plans in place to convert the adjacent outbuildings at some stage in the future 62 OCTOBER 2021 /

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STRUCTURE Windows Velfac (velfac.co.uk) Sliding doors Lux Windows & Doors (luxwindowsanddoors.co.uk) External timber doors and roof trusses Marnick Joinery (marnick.co.uk) Air-source heat pump, hot water cylinder and underfloor heating Nu-Heat (nu-heat.co.uk) Concrete floor Blackman Rowe (blackmanrowe.co.uk) Glazed link Adept Glaziers (adeptglaziers.co.uk)

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS Plywood kitchen and staircase 3C Construction Kitchen worksurfaces Kernow Stone (granite-worktops-cornwall.co.uk) Family bathroom floor tiles Tiles Direct (tiles-direct.com) Duravit sanitaryware and Crosswater bathroom taps, shower and towel radiator CP Hart (cphart.co.uk) FURNITURE AND ACCESSORIES Kitchen stools Sklum (sklum.com) Bed Beds Direct Warehouse (bedsdirectwarehouse.co.uk) Single-bulb pendant lighting Creative Cables (creative-cables.co.uk) Garden furniture Argos (argos.co.uk)

SEE US AT STAND B27A

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M U LT I - F U E L

HOMES LONDON

A tall order Redesigning this period home involved elevating the ceilings, raising the kitchen worksurfaces and building a lofty bathroom WORDS JAYNE DOWLE PHOTOGR APHY RICHARD CHIVERS

Kathi sits at the refectory dining table, a family heirloom that fits neatly in the new extension

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 65

A

t 6ft 9in, Lewis Edwards, 33, a postgraduate student, was always rather too tall for his home. Though he has lived in this townhouse for nine years with his partner Kathi, 32, a business consultant, and their three-year-old son Alex, he had never been able to fully stand up in the shower. ‘The proportions of the house just weren’t right for me,’ he explains.

The couple asked Simon Graham of Yard Architects to help reconfigure the two small bathrooms that were stacked on top of one another in an outrigger extension.

But it wasn’t long before this small-scale problem-solving exercise expanded into something more radical.

‘The entire house needed rethinking,’ says Simon. ‘The lower-ground floor kitchen had low ceilings and was dark and uninviting. And there was very little connection to the garden, which felt like a missed opportunity.’

The solution was to extend into the outdoor space by 5.6m to create an open-plan kitchen/dining room and to reconstruct the outrigger with an extra storey.

The staircase was moved into this double-height space at the rear of the house from its previous position in the centre of the building. ‘The stairwell gives a very generous sense of height and space,’ says Simon.

IN BRIEF –

LOCATION Hackney, east London TYPE OF PROPERTY Victorian end-of-terrace townhouse BEDROOMS 3 PROJECT STARTED November 2017 PROJECT FINISHED August 2019 SIZE 183sqm PROPERTY COST £600,000 BUILD COST £360,000

LEFT The extension has floor-to-ceiling glazing with a large sliding door to maximise views of the garden, plus a sedum roof RIGHT Timber batten cladding cleverly disguises the built-in wall cupboards at the back of the kitchen above the island unit 66 OCTOBER 2021 /

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HOMES LONDON

‘I wanted to keep the kitchen-diner open to the rest of the house as far as possible’ ‘High-level windows bring light into the kitchen and dining area. I also wanted to keep the kitchen-diner open to the rest of the house as far as possible. So despite it being at the back of the building and at a slightly lower level, it’s possible to see the front door while sitting at the dining table.’

The layout of the rest of the house remains the same. But the living room and all the bedrooms have

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been redecorated. This was done under the watchful eye of interior designer George Townsin of Studio George, who worked with Lewis, Kathi and Simon to create a scheme that runs throughout the house and is rooted in the couple’s love of colour.

Perhaps the most vibrant feature is the bright yellow corridor that links the kitchen to the snug – Lewis has nicknamed it ‘the yolky way’. It makes clever use of the space behind the extension, with doors to one side that lead to a shower room and a utility room. The couple’s passion for colour is also evident in the kitchen. ‘We trawled through many different ideas for worksurfaces, but the black terrazzo with green and yellow speckles really caught Lewis and Kathi’s eye, so that was the decision made,’ says George.

BELOW Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs at the dining table are teamed with an antique Orkney chair at one end RIGHT Shelves beneath the stairs provide storage within easy reach of the kitchen, which helps to keep the worksurfaces free from clutter

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HOMES LONDON

LEFT Pink tiles contrast with black fittings in the lower-ground floor bathroom

Bold colours are juxtaposed with natural materials throughout the house. The exterior of the kitchen extension is timber-clad, a theme echoed in the oak batten cladding in the dining area and the wall cupboards concealing the integrated fridge and larder.

RIGHT In the yellow corridor a sliding door at the far end opens to reveal the cosy snug

Perhaps the most vibrant feature is the bright yellow corridor that links the kitchen to the snug ‘The kitchen is where we spend most of our time,’ says Lewis. ‘The way the timber battens lining the walls around the dining table define the space without dividing the room is something I still marvel at.’

Simon and the Yard team kept Lewis’s height in mind all through the design process. ‘They tried their best to maximise ceiling heights wherever possible, including in some quite tricky spots – such as where the new extension meets the old house – and this has made everything work much better for me,’ Lewis explains. ‘The kitchen counters were lifted by 15cm. If I’m honest, I could have had them raised further, but I didn’t want to prevent anyone else from using them comfortably.’

A new bathroom with an all-important high ceiling is on the top floor of the new outrigger. Lewis says his

F L O O R PL A N S DINING AREA

VOID KITCHEN BEDROOM UTILITY

SHOWER LIVING ROOM BEDROOM SNUG

BEDROOM STORAGE

LOWER GROUND FLOOR

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only real frustration was failing to find pink grout to go with the pink bathroom tiles. ‘We couldn’t get the right colour and we didn’t want to risk mixing it. I’m still a bit sad about that,’ he says.

Full planning permission was required for the extension as the house is in a conservation area.

‘The process was quite straightforward and permission was granted first time around,’ says Simon. ‘We were careful to ensure that the design had little impact on the neighbours and talked to them about our proposals before submitting the planning application so we could address 72 OCTOBER 2021 /

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any concerns.’ This led to the couple drawing up a party wall agreement with their neighbour and upgrading the existing soundproofing to improve the level of acoustics between the two houses.

Lewis believes the project has taught him a valuable lesson. ‘I learned that I am someone who cares about design and isn’t afraid to express myself through my home,’ he says. ‘For a long time I lived in a house that somebody else had made. This was the first time I had to make decisions about how things should look, and it was a revelation that I cared so much.’

ABOVE A large white Akari lamp softens the darker, more cocooning colours of the snug RIGHT The staircase has an oak handrail and balustrade that matches the dimensions of the fluted oak panelling in the kitchen-diner

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HOMES LONDON

Painted stairs and a patterned runner lead the eye up towards the new bathroom RIGHT The living room scheme is a combination of original Victorian period features, such as the restored shutters, and contemporary furniture

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S U PPL I E R S – PROJECT TEAM Architect Yard Architects (yardarchitects.co.uk) Structural engineer Blue Engineering (blueengineering.co.uk) Interiors consultant Studio George (studiogeorgelondon.com) Contractor PC Construction & Renovations (pcconstructionltd.co.uk) Party wall surveyor HI Consultants (hiconsultantsuk.org) STRUCTURE Windows Sashed (sashed.com) Sliding doors PC Construction & Renovations Bricks Wienerberger (wienerberger.co.uk) Sedum roof Sedum Supply (sedumsupply.co.uk)

ABOVE The new family bathroom on the first floor of the extension has three windows. The one at the foot of the bath looks out over the garden BELOW Built-in shelving provides display space for photographs and family treasures in the main bedroom, which is painted in Farrow & Ball’s Oval Room Blue

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS Kitchen West & Reid (westandreid.co.uk) Terrazzo worksurfaces Diespeker & Co (diespeker.co.uk) Rooflight Sunsquare (sunsquare.co.uk) Stone flooring Floors of Stone (floorsofstone.com) Radiators Cast Iron Radiator Centre (castironradiatorcentre.co.uk) Sanitaryware Duravit (duravit.co.uk) Bathroom tiles Grestec Tiles (grestec.co.uk) Ironmongery G Johns & Sons (gjohns.co.uk) Towel rails Heat & Plumb (heatandplumb.com) Shelving in snug Vitsoe (vitsoe.com) Light switches Dowsing & Reynolds (dowsingandreynolds.com) Paint Farrow & Ball (farrow-ball.com), Paint & Paper Library (paintandpaperlibrary.com), Dulux (dulux.co.uk) FURNITURE AND ACCESSORIES Wishbone dining chairs, Akari pendant light in living room and Akari lamp in snug The Conran Shop (conranshop.co.uk) Living room sofa, safari chair in bedroom, Erick Buck replica stools and Hans-Agne Jakobsson pendant light over kitchen stairs Vinterior (vinterior.co) Light above dining table and table light in living room Alfies Antique Market (alfiesantiques.com) Globe pendant in entrance hall Retrouvius (retrouvius.com)

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SEE US AT STAND B27

LUXURY HOME SPECIALISTS Acres Architects are an award-winning architects practice. We're proud and passionate about being focused on the residential sector, this means we can do this in a BIG way We help you to create the perfect HOME.

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HOMES LOS ANGELES

Hello sunshine After a decade of living in dark, cramped rooms, one couple redesigned their suburban home to bring in more light

A deck and small balcony were added to the reworked front façade. The planted borders capture rainwater run-off

WORDS AR ABELL A ST JOHN PARKER PHOTOGR APHY JESS ISA AC

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IN BRIEF –

LOCATION Mid-City, Los Angeles, USA TYPE OF PROPERTY Remodelled single-storey house BEDROOMS 3 PROJECT STARTED February 2020 PROJECT FINISHED September 2020 SIZE 172sqm BUILD COST Around £288,000

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HOMES LOS ANGELES

A

Boston, the family’s boxer dog, takes advantage of a sunny spot in the kitchen, where the island and units are raised on recessed plinths so they appear to take up less floorspace ABOVE RIGHT The kitchen mixer tap, which is set into a honed quartz worksurface, is touch-operated

s the world navigates its way through the pandemic and the shortage of materials continues to delay building projects, advertising executive Kirsty King, 51, and her partner, logistics supervisor David Mazichina, 44, have a reason to be thankful.

‘That could have been us,’ says Kirsty, as she looks around the sunny, open-plan kitchen of her family’s remodelled home, which is in a quiet neighbourhood in Los Angeles, USA. ‘When Covid struck, our builders were already on site, the roof was off and the walls were down to the studs. Suddenly everything was up in the air.

Fortunately, we were able to carry on, with social distancing and masks. And, thanks to David’s foresight, we had already pre-ordered all the materials and had stored them safely until they were needed.’

Kirsty, who moved to Los Angeles from Scotland when she was 23, bought the house as a fixer-upper nearly 20 years ago, in 2002, before she met South African-born David. ‘I fell in love with the street,’ she recalls, ‘because every home was detached and

in a completely different style, from Spanish, colonial and craftsman to storybook Tudor.’

The house was built in 1924 and was fairly nondescript. ‘The estate agent called its style traditional English,’ adds Kirsty. ‘It had a steep-pitched gable and chimney at the front, mullioned and leaded windows, and arched doorways. It was also uninhabitable and the agent thought I was crazy to consider it, but it had a double garage and was surrounded by a very overgrown garden. I knew it had potential.’

Working with a local contractor, Kirsty updated the interiors while her parents restored the garden during summer visits. ‘I couldn’t afford to do anything about the internal layout, though, and the small windows meant it was dark and gloomy inside,’ she recalls.

All that changed when, a few years after meeting David, the couple decided that they needed a more spacious home for themselves, their five-year-old daughter Gertrude and David’s son Nehemiah, 15.

Once they had converted the garage and small standalone studio-office into a guest bedroom, they set about remodelling the main house.

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‘A contractor introduced us to architect Susan Nwankpa Gillespie, who had recently set up her own practice, Nwankpa Design,’ says Kirsty. ‘She showed us how we could push out the front and back of the house to gain more space and light. It would also enable us to open up the ceiling and, by adding some incredible doors and windows, connect the house with the garden and the guesthouse.’

Other priorities included an open-plan living area with a large kitchen island, and a walk-in wardrobe for Kirsty.

‘The internal layout was stifling,’ recalls Susan. ‘The kitchen was closed off from the rest of the house and the corridors were so large that the rooms themselves felt really small. It was far removed from the Californian modernist ideal of effortless indoor-outdoor living and bright spaces.’

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footprint, which had already been enlarged by a previous owner. ‘In LA, it’s generally better to renovate instead of starting anew if you want to keep certain features that are no longer in the building code,’ she explains. There are also cost and environmental savings if enough of the original structure is reused.

‘We did toy with the idea of adding another storey,’ adds Susan. ‘But the planning process is very difficult in LA, so in the end it made more sense to keep the single level. The design was treated a bit like surgery, dividing the house into shared and private spaces, and focusing resources on the creation of an uninterrupted run of open-plan living space on one side of the house, where the family spends most of its time.’ This room, which includes two seating areas, a dining space and a kitchen, runs from front to back and has a Scandinavian-inspired

HOMES LOS ANGELES

‘We focused resources on the creation of an uninterrupted run of open-plan living space’

ABOVE LEFT David wanted the kitchen island to look as clean and uncluttered as possible, hence the decision to put the sink in the centre of the room and the chunkier gas hob along the wall RIGHT For a more pared-back look, Kirsty chose fittings and furnishings with simple lines and natural materials.

The wool rug was handwoven in India MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 83

HOMES LOS ANGELES palette of oak doors and cupboards, ash panelling on the ceiling, white oak flooring and white paintwork.

‘By removing the fireplace, pushing the living area outwards into the front garden and extending the roofline down to shade a new deck at the back, we were able to create more internal floorspace,’ says Susan. ‘Meanwhile, a pitched gable on the newly extended front façade enabled us to vault the ceilings inside and put glazing in the roof to supplement the bi-fold doors.’

These changes have transformed the house, and the couple are especially proud that the project brought together people from all over the world – the contractor, Cecille Maristela, is from the Philippines and the project manager, Rie Watanabe, is Japanese – and that it was

predominantly overseen by women. ‘It’s something David and I feel really good about,’ says Kirsty.

The work has certainly enhanced the couple’s enjoyment of living in their home. ‘The house now feels very modern,’ says Kirsty. ‘I still have moments of disbelief when I wake up and walk through the house to the living area. I love the way the bi-fold doors make the house feel wide open, and it’s lovely to sit out on the deck while enjoying a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.’

It has also had a positive reaction around the neighbourhood. ‘People stop to look and congratulate us, and so many ask if we’re going to sell,’ says Kirsty.

‘We have the standout home in the street.’

LEFT To keep the style as streamlined as possible, the architect meticulously specified every detail, including the ribbed oak surface design of the push-to-open cupboards in the rear living area ABOVE The architect encouraged the couple to install bi-fold doors at the front of the house as well as the back. This connects the open-plan living space with the garden as well as the street, and boosts light levels

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F L O O R PL A N BEDROOM WALK-IN WARDROBE

EN SUITE

BEDROOM

BATHROOM

LAUNDRY

DINING AREA LIVING AREA

BEDROOM

WC

STORAGE

KITCHEN LIVING AREA

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HOMES LOS ANGELES Some of the space in the main bedroom was sacrificed to create two walk-in wardrobes and an en-suite bathroom, all of which are reached via custom-made oak-veneered doors

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HOMES LOS ANGELES

THIS PAGE The ribbed oak vanity unit in the main bathroom echoes the design of the woodwork in the kitchen and injects warmth into the otherwise monochrome scheme

S U PPL I E R S – PROJECT TEAM Architect Susan Nwankpa Gillespie, Nwankpa Design (nwankpadesign.com) Structural engineer Gordon L Polon (gordonpolon.com) Contractor Cecille Maristela at Substrata (substrata.com) STRUCTURE Internal doors Westside Door (westsidedoor.com) Bi-fold doors Fleetwood Windows & Doors (fleetwoodusa.com) FIXTURES AND FITTINGS Bespoke woodwork Substrata (substrata.com)

Paint and wood stains Portola (portolapaints.com) Sanitaryware Villeroy & Boch (villeroy-boch.com) Quartz worksurface Cosmos Flooring (cosmosflooring.com) Kitchen and bathroom taps Brizo (brizo.com) Hob Miele (miele.co.uk) FURNITURE AND ACCESSORIES Rugs The Citizenry (the-citizenry.com) Dining table Simon Jones for Hay (us.hay.com) Leather-upholstered chairs CB2 (cb2.com) Lighting RH (rh.com), Lulu and Georgia (luluandgeorgia.com)

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STEP ON IT!

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ADVERTISING PROMOTION This wall panelling is painted in Botanical Noir, Elle Decoration by Crown flat matt emulsion BELOW The bedroom is in Satin Lining and Go Green, both Elle Decoration by Crown flat matt emulsion, all from £36 for 2.5 litres

EXPLORE COLOUR WITH CROWN Discover 60 stunning shades from six colour families with the Elle Decoration range

Adding a splash of colour is the easiest way to give your home style and personality.

The collaboration between Crown and Elle Decoration offers 60 modern, multi-surface shades in an elegant flat matt finish to give any space a sophisticated new look.

The exclusive Elle Decoration by Crown collection combines Crown Paints’ 200 years of knowledge and craftsmanship with Elle Decoration’s world-leading command of contemporary design. With its six beautiful and innovative colour palettes, the premium paint range is designed to help you stamp your own identity on your home. Botanical presents a soothing mix of natural tones, ranging from warm, earthy neutrals to cool, deep greens. Drift is about escapism and features a spectrum of blues, starting at the ocean floor and rising to a light sea breeze. Powder

is a collection of complex neutral shades including warm taupes and soft beiges. Crafted challenges the traditional perception of pinks, taking its inspiration from beautiful textures found in fabrics and textiles. Obsidian is an ode to earthly materials with elegant shades that range from a gentle concrete to a cool gemstone. And Feather celebrates the ethereal majesty of white, with delicate and pale tones that will suit any space.

Timeless and versatile, the Elle Decoration

by Crown colours are at home on both woodwork and walls. Delivering the protection you need for family life, they are developed with Crown’s unique Breatheasy formulation, which is 99 per cent solvent-free. Also, because the paints are 200 times tougher than regular emulsion, the collection provides a finish that is highly durable and easy to clean.

● To explore the Elle Decoration by Crown collection and find your nearest stockist, visit elledecoration-crownpaints.com

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ADVERTISING PROMOTION

CLEAR THINKING Steel-framed windows and doors benefit your home and health With more of us working from home during lockdown, maximising the amount of daylight coming into our houses is a good way to ensure our overall good health.

‘Our homes play a big part in our sense of wellbeing,’ says Russell Ager, managing director of steel window and door manufacturer Crittall Windows.

‘The amount of exposure to natural light we get through windows and doors really does have an impact.

With their inherent strength allowing large expanses of glass, elegant slender frames and slim profiles, steel-framed windows are ideal. The size, positioning, frame and glazing play a key role in the collection and distribution of natural light throughout an interior.’

The hallmark of a Crittall window is a slender steel frame that is much slimmer – and therefore admits more

light – than some window systems, which require far larger profiles due to the differences in the frame material and their relative strengths.

Crittall’s slim-profile windows and Innervision internal glazed steel screens with sliding or hinged doors are designed for modern living, providing a sense of space without compromising aesthetics. Bright, beautifully crafted walls of glazing and slim-profiled windows fit the timeless style of a period house, as well as defining space in a townhouse, urban loft, warehouse apartment or self-build project.

Expanses of glazing on external walls give a greater sense of space and light by connecting us with the outdoors.

When working at home, having a clear view of a landscape, garden, patio or park can be inspirational for that great creative idea – as well our wellbeing.

TOP Crittall doors let you create separate zones for tasks such as homeworking without reducing the amount of light coming in ABOVE Combine style with functionality with bespoke Innervision steel screens and sliding doors ● For more information, visit crittall-windows.co.uk or call 01376 530800 MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 91

Solutions for a peaceful home Discover the benefits of products designed to achieve low noise levels The acoustics within a building are closely linked to our sense of wellbeing. Yet as sound is invisible this vital element of home design is often overlooked. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of us working from home, along with the need for peaceful surroundings to help 92 OCTOBER 2021 /

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concentration, productivity and sanctuary.

However, the science of acoustic design is complex, which means finding solutions specific to your project can be a challenge.

This is why the Quiet Mark Acoustics Academy (acousticsacademy.com) provides an online directory of expertly verified

solutions for every building project.

It makes it easy to access hundreds of beautifully designed acoustic-enhancing building materials, plus quiet and powerful home appliances, and ventilation and technology products, all of which will transform the comfort of your home.

WITH GRAND DESIGNS

Acoustic comfort The Akupanel from WoodUpp (woodupp.co.uk), shown left and below left, is an acoustic wooden slat wall panel that brings the beauty and calming influence of nature into the home and workplace. The design is especially effective in rooms with bare, hard surfaces because the slat panels absorb any soundwaves that would otherwise reverberate around the space, and this creates a much calmer environment.

Framed from Greenmood (greenmood.be) is a collection of framed wall panels, shown above and right, made from reindeer moss and designed with the benefit of natural sound absorption.

Ambient noise is cushioned within the naturally preserved moss, helping to reduce the background noise levels within your home.

As well as providing certified sound-reducing qualities, these panels create evocative multi-tonal

shapes and lines, enhancing the visual appeal of a room.

With four distinctive designs and several different hanging possibilities, they give architects, designers and homeowners the freedom to arrange them in a host of creative ways.

Each oak wood framed panel is available in small, medium, large and extra large, and the reindeer moss comes in a variety of colours, allowing you to mix and match according to your scheme.

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Quiet wash The work-from-home movement is here to stay, even post-pandemic.

Our homes have become offices and sanctuaries, functioning best when the environment is calm and tranquil.

But it’s hard to achieve a noise-free background that’s conducive to work or quality downtime when a washing machine has a lengthy programme ending in an 80dB spin cycle that’s as loud as busy city traffic.

A British Journal of Psychology study shows that background noise adversely impacts stress levels, mood and concentration, reducing work output by up to 66 per cent.

The Quiet Mark-certified WEG665 washing machine from Miele (miele.co.uk) has Wi-Fi connection for smart laundry care and is one of the quietest models on the market.

Miele’s Profi-Eco motor allows its washing machines to be 50 per cent quieter than machines with a carbon-brush motor. At only 50dB, it’s less noisy than a conversation.

It also features a convenient touch-screen display for easy fingertip operation, plus automatic detergent dispensing. Miele’s CapDosing is ideal for introducing special detergents, fabric conditioners and additives using portioned capsules.

This hi-tech machine provides intelligent washing with automatic load recognition for low loads, reducing water and electricity consumption. It takes care of laundry thanks to the honeycomb drum, which has a hexagonal sculptured surface so that clothes glide on a thin film of water.

Quiet refrigeration Keeping groceries in the best possible condition ensures lasting freshness and a longer storage time, which makes a substantial contribution to avoiding unnecessary food waste.

With the Quiet Mark-certified ICBNdi 5183 Peak BioFresh NoFrost integrable fridge-freezer from Liebherr (home.liebherr.com), this is made possible by its combination of integrated freshness technologies.

WITH GRAND DESIGNS

Only 10 to 20 per cent of the quietest best-performing products are awarded Quiet Mark certification

The appliance recently received the world-renowned 2021 iF Design Award. More than 98 members were selected out of almost 10,000 entries submitted from 52 countries, all hoping to receive the seal of quality and craftsmanship.

Hidden behind the doors of a built-in kitchen, a Liebherr integrated appliance is totally inconspicuous and allows the design of the kitchen to take the spotlight.

The fridge holds nine bags of shopping at once, while the freezer has capacity for three bags. And it comes with technology that will stop ice building up inside, which means no more defrosting by hand.

The water dispenser allows you to quench your thirst with an ice-cold drink whenever you wish. And because the doors can be installed on the left- or right-hand side, it’ll look great wherever it is positioned.

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Quiet water power

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that a trickling shower has a negative effect on their mental state. The good news is you don’t have to put up with poor water pressure.

Salamander Pumps has a range of products that can quietly boost the water performance in your home, helping you achieve a more relaxing shower experience. And many options are available to suit all types of plumbing systems.

Its Quiet Mark-certified Salamander Homeboost is an intelligent whole-house pump that recognises when the water pressure and flow is low and quietly boosts water performance, either directly

or indirectly, via your combination boiler. It provides a boost of up to 12 litres per minute, and there are several products in the Homeboost range to suit all types of system.

PHOTOGRAPHY ROMAN SHOWER ENCLOSURES

Whether it’s a refreshing morning wake-up or a relaxing evening wind-down, showers are one of life’s little luxuries. But designing a bathroom that is also a peaceful place to unwind or invigorate your senses can become a frustration if the water pressure means the pump is too loud.

Low water pressure can be an issue for many UK households. In fact, a survey from Salamander Pumps (salamanderpumps.co.uk) revealed that 40 per cent of us are impacted by low water pressure on a day-to-day basis, and 43 per cent of people said

WITH GRAND DESIGNS

Quiet heat Aerona³ air source heat pumps from Grant (grantuk.com) have been designed to have minimum noise impact on a home and its neighbouring properties. This is a very important factor to consider for outdoor appliances.

With their low noise-level operation recognised by Quiet Mark, the Aerona³ heat pumps provide a sustainable solution for home heating. What’s more, these products can help you move away from a reliance on fossil fuel-powered systems.

Air source heat pumps have fans that make a sound

when they rotate. But all of the Aerona³ units are, in fact, quieter than many household appliances. For example, the average washing machine has a sound level of 65dB and all four models in the Aerona³ range – 6kW, 10kW, 13kW and 17kW – are considerably quieter than this.

Use the QR code below to discover how a family home was able to reduce its carbon footprint by installing a Quiet Markcertified Aerona³ 13kW air source heat pump.

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Quiet ventilation The launch of Svara from Vent-Axia (vent-axia.com) marks the next generation of multipurpose fans.

It has a sleek, modern design plus quiet running, operating at just 17dB(A) on low trickle. It is also easy to clean as the central module disconnects the motor from the rest of the fan, allowing it to be wiped with a soft cloth. At only 4W the energy-efficient Svara also has low power consumption.

It is programmed to cope with most installations, so it can be fitted in either a bathroom or a kitchen, and can be set to run either continuously or intermittently.

When the light sensor is enabled, Svara senses when someone is in the room and then activates. Its sophisticated light sensor is triggered by movement and shadows. But it is

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also possible to set a delay so the fan is not triggered by the light during quick night-time bathroom visits.

The light sensor can also distinguish between headlight flashes from passing cars and room occupancy, avoiding nuisance running, and the sensitivity of the light sensor can be adjusted via the app.

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WITH GRAND DESIGNS

Quiet purified air We spend around 90 per cent of our time inside, yet indoor air can be up to five times more polluted than it is outside. Indoor air is made up of particles including dust, mould, smoke, bacteria, viruses, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and pet dander. Indoor activities such as cooking contribute to poor air quality, along with outdoor pollution that makes its way inside.

This causes a build-up, which can take much longer to disperse if there is inadequate ventilation.

Clean air helps to promote deep sleep, and people who live in areas with higher levels of air pollution are 60 per cent more likely to sleep poorly than those living in areas with cleaner air, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by Blueair (blueair.com).

Since we spend around one third of our lives sleeping, it is important to place an air purifier in the bedroom to ensure we experience the full benefits of clean air. The survey found that silence, followed by clean air,

are perceived as the two most important factors for achieving a good night’s sleep.

Blueair air purifiers such as the Blueair HealthProtect 7470i pictured above are Quiet Mark certified. The range uses Blueair’s unique HEPASilent Ultra technology and all models are whisper-silent, so you can sleep right next to one safe in the knowledge that it won’t disturb you during the night.

For more solutions to unwanted noise, visit Quiet Mark’s Acoustics Academy at quietmark.com.

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Airtight construction keeps temperatures consistent in this Passivhaus-certified home in Perth, Australia. Turn to page 109 for more

PHOTOGRAPHY JODY D’ARCY

PROJECTS

How to find the perfect build site

10 energyefficient houses

Flooring ideas and expertise

Guide to home security

103

109

119

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T H E U LT I M AT E DESIGN

BUILD

Octagon have developed an unrivalled reputation for designing and building magnificent, one-of-a-kind homes in some of the country’s finest locations, as well as restoring listed properties and completing major renovations and extensions.

020 8168 0251 | OCTAGONBESPOKE.CO.UK

PROJECTS GRAND BUILD

On the site of an old corn mill near Sheffield, this plot was marked as sold on an auction website. Out of curiosity, brothers Nik and Jon Daughtry contacted the owner and made an offer, which was accepted

Finding the ideal plot Securing the right site is essential for a successful self-build project, so make sure you explore all the avenues Since more people than ever want to build their own homes, good sites can take some time to find. But if you are patient and are prepared to consider a range of plot options, such as a sloping site, you will increase your chances of success.

Once you have a realistic idea of your project budget, the search can begin. Bringing an architect on board when you find something promising can be helpful as they’ll assess the land’s suitability and uncover any potential pitfalls.

If you’re prepared to compromise, for example by taking on a sloping site, you’ll increase your chances of success

Tracking down opportunities Use a variety of plot-searching options to improve your chances of finding your perfect plot.

Websites such as Plotfinder and Buildstore Plotsearch advertise thousands of land listings.

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PROJECTS GRAND BUILD

Spotted on an estate agent’s website, this 19th-century gamekeeper’s lodge in Horsham, West Sussex, is adjacent to a new-build family home

It’s also useful to check out property portals such as Zoopla and Rightmove.

Register your interest with the councils in the areas where you’d like to build. Local authorities must maintain a register of demand for plots to match the number of people who have shown an interest in building a home.

Sign up with the estate agents in the area you want to build in, as they’ll be the first to know about any sites for sale. And speak to local architects and surveyors as they’re likely to find out about new plots early. They may know of a site that’s not right for them, but perfect for you.

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Suitable sites for single houses are often sold at auction, either as renovation projects or demolition and rebuilds. Ask local estate agents to alert you when auctions are upcoming.

Sign up with the estate agents in the area you want to build, as they’ll be the first to know about any sites for sale Write an enquiry letter including your contact details and post to all the houses in, or close to, your ideal area.

Someone might be keen to MAGAZINE.COM

sell their property, or a portion of their garden, or know of someone else looking to sell.

Finally, scour the streets for potential sites, and contact the planning department to see if an application has been submitted or contact the owners through the Land Registry (gov.uk/government/ organisations/land-registry).

Suitable land Many home-building plots tend to be on brownfield sites – land that has been developed in the past. If you spot a piece of land that appears to have potential and want to find out more about it, the local authority’s land-use development plan

maps will indicate the ground’s classification, ie: what it can be used for. The next step is to check its ownership via the Land Registry.

The local planning authority keeps records of all planning applications made regarding the plot. Any past applications will also show its ownership at the time, as the forms ask who the owner is and that they are notified – even when an application is by someone else.

This should provide the title register and a plan of the plot, which will set out who owns it and should show details of anyone else who has a right to the land.

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PROJECTS GRAND BUILD

Limiting disruption to the neighbours hastened the build schedule of this project in the Wirral, Merseyside

Room for negotiation?

If you find a plot and want to haggle over the price, bear in mind that the value will be dependent on many factors including its classification, location, size and the potential end value of what can be built on it. Unfortunately for selfbuilders, individual plots or bigger development sites are the most expensive. Agricultural land sells for less, but sometimes these plots are misleadingly advertised as available with planning permission. A site that appears to be a bargain may be 106 OCTOBER 2021 /

Unfortunately for self-builders, individual plots or bigger development sites are the most expensive inexpensive for a reason, so be cautious because it could leave you out of pocket in the end.

Gaining build consent Avoid buying a plot without planning permission in place.

You don’t want to end up with a strip of land with no development potential. If you’re determined that a site is the one for you, make an offer subject to achieving satisfactory consents.

If the landowner is serious about selling, they will realise the benefits of waiting until permission is granted.

MAGAZINE.COM

There are two types of planning consent: outline planning permission (OPP) and detailed planning permission (DPP). OPP means that the local council has agreed the basic principle of a proposed development. It’s an outline of the scheme – for example, to erect a two-storey, threebedroom home with attached garage. It’s subject to the condition that full planning details will be submitted in advance of building work commencing. OPP is only valid for a certain period, and you will need to apply for DPP before starting work. If you want to buy a plot or property subject to planning consent, check the dates first.

Don’t dismiss a plot because you don’t like the permitted design. You can submit a new

application, even if DPP exists for a different design, without invalidating the existing permission that the site had when you bought the land.

Be wary of plots that have planning permission close to expiry – six months can be too short – as planning departments can take up to 12 weeks in considering applications. If preparatory work or investigations are needed, this could substantially delay the process.

USEFUL CONTACTS Buildstore Plotsearch (plotsearch.buildstore.co.uk) The Land Bank Partnership (thelandbankpartnership.co.uk) National Community Land Trust Network (communitylandtrusts.org.uk) Plotbrowser (plotbrowser.com) Plotfinder (plotfinder.net) Right to Build (selfbuildportal.org.uk) Rightmove (rightmove.co.uk) Zoopla (zoopla.co.uk)

PHOTOGRAPHY FIONA WALKER-ARNOTT, MATT CHISNALL, ANDREW WALL

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10 Eco-friendly design solutions that combine sustainability and style

Energy-efficient houses Self-builders and renovators are keen to reduce their carbon footprints and reliance on fossil fuels. They want to save money on energy bills, generate their own electricity and even ditch heating altogether. Whether working on a new-build or retrofitting a home, architects respond to this demand with energy-conscious designs, innovative construction methods and sustainable building practices that often include recyclable materials.

WORDS JAYNE DOWLE

1

FABRIC-FIRST APPROACH The Passivhaus-

certified Abbetthaus was built on an overshadowed urban plot in the suburb of Scarborough in Perth, Western Australia. The owners are Jason Edmiston, a construction manager, and his partner Lauren McGregor, a project consultant for a furniture company.

Architect Ben Caine worked with a Passivhaus consultant to devise an innovative construction method.

The building’s skin performs like a Thermos flask, keeping indoor temperatures constant. The house, which cost

£209,000 to build, relies on airtight construction, high-performance glazing and a ventilation system to keep the internal space comfortable all year round, without the need for additional heating or cooling. ‘The temperature is consistently perfect; fresh, filtered air fills the house; and our electricity bills are trivial,’ says Jason.

Ben hopes the two-bedroomed home, which has a study, open-plan living space and plunge pool, will encourage more affordable, energy-efficient houses in Australia. (leanhaus.com.au)

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 109

2

STRUCTURE UNDER WRAPS

During the lockdowns of 2020 architect Piers Taylor undertook a major retrofit of his family home, Moonshine, in St Catherine’s Valley near Bath, at a cost of £90,000. He was prompted by rainwater coming through the roof and the need to reduce the family’s reliance on log-burning stoves.

Moonshine is a crenellated stone building with a timber-framed extension, designed by Piers 20 years ago. His retrofit focused on wrapping the timber frame in several layers of insulation and adding a continuous airtight membrane around the whole house, taping all the joins to address thermal bridging.

Piers also replaced the windows and floors, adding new drainpipes and guttering and upgrading the interior. He shares the four-bedroom house with his wife, writer Sue Phillips, and three of their four children – their eldest daughter lives in Australia. Underfloor electric heating (UFH) is linked to a solar-power battery connected to photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof. The log burner in the living area now powers a boiler for the hot water system. (invisiblestudio.org)

3

CUSTOMISED DESIGN Brian Macintosh wanted his new family home near Radlett, Hertfordshire, to be super-insulated and built for low energy use, so he asked modular home specialist Baufritz to devise a suitable design. He had one stipulation: to incorporate panes of glass measuring the entire height of the 441sqm, six-bedroomed house to maximise natural light and solar gain. Other 110 OCTOBER 2021 /

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energy-efficient measures include an air-source heat pump and triple-glazed windows.

Brian, who works in technology, also asked Baufritz architect Anthony Cooper to customise the house by using reconstituted grey brick for part of the façade and to incorporate a floating wood-and-steel staircase. Built on the site of the family’s former home, which was demolished, the project cost around £1 million. (baufritz.com)

PROJECTS GRAND GUIDE

4

BUILD PRECISION The large south-facing

windows in Stour House, near Harkstead, Suffolk, optimise passive solar gain, while the deeply recessed custom-manufactured reveals are angled to prevent overheating.

A large modular rooflight in the doubleheight living space can be opened to air the 420sqm, seven-bedroomed house via stack ventilation during the summer, and there is also a mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system.

The house belongs to a professional couple with grown-up children and was built on the site of the family’s existing 1950s bungalow in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It was designed by Bruce Bell, CEO and co-founder of Facit Homes, on a budget of £1.2 million.

A digitally manufactured, sustainable, timber-framed Facit Chassis gives the house an airtightness score close to Passivhaus levels. ‘It is a super-airtight, super-insulated home designed to optimise passive energy gain,’ says Bruce. (facit-homes.com)

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 111

PROJECTS GRAND GUIDE

5

CLOSE TO NATURE Built on the edge of Wing,

a village in Rutland, Stonecrop has two wings of its own – one for use by the owners and the other, which includes three bedrooms, for visiting family and friends. Only the main wing, which contains the living spaces and two bedrooms, is heated daily, a decision by architecture practice Featherstone Young to reduce energy use. The 347sqm house relies on a ground-source heat

6

LASTING BENEFITS A dark and

cramped Victorian terraced home backing onto Herne Hill train station in south London has been sustainably retrofitted and extended.

The project, which cost £180,000, relied on a fabric-first approach to improve the thermal performance of the 90sqm house, where a sheep’s wool product was chosen to upgrade the insulation. The owners, interior designer Clare Checkland and engineering specialist Ian Harding, specified reclaimed timber for all the new and replaced floors in the four-bedroomed house.

A staggered 25sqm two-storey extension with a biodiverse roof fed by recycled rainwater has a kitchen/diner on the ground floor with a bathroom above. It is clad in oxidised copper and charred larch to relate to the surrounding properties and the nearby railway.

‘Copper is seen as a luxury material, with a higher embodied level of energy, but I like its longevity, resistance to moisture and ability to be recycled in many ways,’ explains architect Michael Collins. (michaelcollinsarchitects.com) 112 OCTOBER 2021 /

MAGAZINE.COM

pump for heating, augmented by a wood-fired stove with a back boiler. Solar-powered thermal panels provide hot water. A similar property would cost around £3,200 per sqm to build.

The owners, retired doctors Matthew and Nicola Lyttelton, love the connection with nature. A folded and faceted green roof appears to rise out of the ground to unify the building with the surrounding landscape, spiralling around the wings and encircling an open central courtyard. (featherstoneyoung.com)

7

MULTIGENERATIONAL LIVING Graphic designer

Ben Magid asked architect Sarah Wigglesworth to devise a new multigeneration sustainable home for him and his extended family. In response, she came up with a single-storey three-bedroomed house on a suburban infill plot in Kensal Green, north-west London.

Located on the site of a former dairy farm, the 125sqm L-shaped property is home to Ben, his partner Tereza, their four-year-old son Ray, and Ben’s 75-year-old mother Christine. ‘We can all be together and support one another,’ explains Ben.

Sustainable principles informed the design to reduce heat loss and take advantage of solar gain, with Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) modelling used to test the energy performance. The structure is made of prefabricated timber cassettes, which have been taped and filled with insulation to ensure the construction is highly airtight.

An air-source heat pump supplies both the heating and hot water.

Ben estimates the family’s total energy bills to be around £50 per month. The build cost was £600,000, which included repurposing an existing greenhouse into a greenery-surrounded garden bower that links the living and sleeping wings of the house. (swarch.co.uk)

8

TIMBER FRAME DETACHED

On a 14-acre hillside plot in Presteigne, Powys, Wales, a civil engineer and retired marine environmental consultant have built a new 160sqm Passivhaus-standard house to their own carefully researched specifications. The couple were keen to keep energy consumption down, so they invested in a highly insulated and airtight timber-frame construction.

Designed by architecture practice Dempsey Decourcy, the three-bedroom house has Isoquick insulated raft foundations, with Warmcel recycled paper insulation inside the timber frame. The exterior features Douglas fir cladding, pre-painted by the couple with Keim Lignosil paint. Triple-glazed windows and a mechanical ventilation with heat recovery system from the Green Building Store (greenbuildingstore.co.uk) furthered the couple’s aim of reducing fuel bills. The airtight shell cost around £1,200 per sqm, giving a basic build cost of £192,000. (dempseydecourcyarchitects.co.uk) MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 113

PROJECTS GRAND GUIDE

9

SELF-SUFFICIENCY AMBITION Sean and Jessica

Rigg designed The Spiral, their distinctive, curvilinear family home in Worth, near Crawley, West Sussex, to generate as much energy as possible.

Their ambition was achieved by fitting 19 photovoltaic solar panels on the roof, which provide most of the 346sqm house’s energy requirements. The panels are supplemented by a groundsource heat pump, which supplies the underfloor heating and hot water. Triple glazing and external insulation help to keep energy costs to £1 a day or less.

Sean, a builder, and app creator Jessica designed the interiors themselves and worked with Cowan Architects to help their five-bedroom home reach Passivhaus standard.

The build cost more than £1 million and the plot, with outline planning permission, was £500,000. (cowan-architects.co.uk)

10

TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED Former

house. The main bedroom, which has an en-suite bathroom, and living spaces are on the first floor, with two additional bedrooms, a study and utility room on the ground floor.

‘There is no central heating,’ explains Ian. ‘The house uses solar gain in the winter and, because it is so well-sealed and insulated, it only requires additional heat a few days a year. This is provided by two small electric panel radiators, each about the size of A3 paper, and a couple of towel rails.’ The cost for the 105sqm house and garage was £350,000. (molearchitects.co.uk)

PHOTOGRAPHY JODY D’ARCY, JIM STEPHENSON, JOAKIM BOREN, MARTIN GARDNER, JACOB MILLIGAN, JAMES BRITTAIN, TIM CROCKER, JURAJ MICURCIK, OLIVER STREETON – TRUEPLAN, MATTHEW SMITH

headteacher Joan Morters wanted to retire to a rural spot within an hour of London and build an affordable Passivhaus with minimal running costs. She drew a radius on a map and found a plot in Ramsey Heights, Huntingdonshire, for £105,000 with outline planning permission. To maximise the views over the surrounding Fens, Ian Bramwell of Mole Architects designed an upside-down

114 OCTOBER 2021 /

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PROJECTS GUIDE TO FLOORS

Perfection underfoot How to get a surface that is fit for purpose, looks beautiful and lasts for a long time WORDS CAROLINE RODRIGUES

If you’re planning a self-build or extension, consider the flooring as early as possible. ‘Advance planning irons out any practical difficulties, since ceiling heights, door thresholds and staircases are dependent on the floor level,’ says Hanna Zminkowska of Zminkowska De Boise Architects (zdbarchitects.com). ‘The damp-proofing and thermal insulation of ground floors, and the sound insulation and fire protection of upper ones, are also important.’ Threshold drainage must be considered if the surface is to run directly out onto a patio.

A concrete structural framework was inserted when the top floor of this period building in Marylebone, central London, was rebuilt in the 1950s.

Architecture studio Proctor & Shaw (proctorandshaw.com) repositioned the partition walls of the two-bedroom apartment and laid lye-washed Douglas fir solid planks, from £95 per sqm, Dinesen (dinesen.com)

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 119

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PROJECTS GUIDE TO FLOORS Construction options A ground-level concrete slab and first floor supported by timber joists is the cheapest option. Though pricier, the other methods outlined below save time and labour. In extensions, a concrete slab often forms the base layer. But big extensions and self-build houses are more likely to use a suspended beam-and-block floor. Quick and efficient to construct, it consists of T-shaped beams laid across the floor above the damp-proof course, infilled by concrete blocks.

Upstairs, a suspended timber floor is usual, with joists supported by galvanised steel hangers. A structural engineer will calculate the joist sizes and indicate where they must be doubled up to support partition walls or staircases. Timber I-joists or I-beams cost more, but can span greater widths.

Composite lightweight open metal web joists with timber top and bottom chords are even stronger, spanning up to 7.5m. ‘They’re hollow, so useful for running services, but are custom-made and can’t be cut on site, though some can be trimmed,’ says Hanna. ‘All-steel floor joists are expensive and not usually suited for the typical spans in houses.’

RIGHT This oak-effect porcelain replicates the rich colour gradations and grain of timber. Chianti in Rovere, 1,800x 225mm planks, £142.80 per sqm, Lapicida (lapicida.com)

Good insulation Minimising heat loss through the floor is important for new-builds and restorations. Building Regulations set thermal performance requirements in U-values, which differ depending on the type of project. In a new building, a layer of insulation goes over the concrete slab, either above or below the damp-proof membrane. Alternatively, insulation can be placed below the concrete slab.

‘When upgrading an existing uninsulated concrete floor, it is best practice to add a layer of insulation’ Suspended timber floors can be insulated between the joists with mineral wool batts, PIR (polyisocyanurate) boards, sheep’s wool or wood fibre batts.

‘When upgrading an existing uninsulated concrete floor, it is best practice to add a layer of insulation, though this will probably raise the finished level and affect your choice of floorcovering,’ says Hanna.

LEFT An engineered wood floor in FSC-certified European oak adds subtle pattern to apartments in Primrose Hill, north London, by architecture practice Squire & Partners (squireandpartners.com) in conjunction with developer Godfrey London (godfreylondon.co.uk). Rhine chevron blocks from the Parquetry collection, 20mm thick with a 6mm wear layer, £120.80 per sqm, Woodworks by Ted Todd (tedtodd.co.uk) MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 121

Staying cosy For warmth underfoot, underfloor heating (UFH) is a space-saving choice. To work efficiently, it must be properly insulated. Wet UFH, which uses water-carrying pipes, can be expensive to retrofit, but is an easy addition to new-builds, where the pipes can be laid within a concrete floor screed or beneath a suspended timber floor.

Electric UFH, which is easier to fit, comes as heated cables to bury within a screed, or as a cable-carrying mat to lay over a concrete or boarded suspended timber floor. If you’re thinking of laying wood flooring over a UFH system, have the conversation about compatibility at an early stage. ‘I recommend monitors such as Fidbox (fidbox.net) to measure the temperature of the floor,’ says Robert Walsh, founder and owner of Tedd Todd (tedtodd.co.uk).

Selecting a finish

ABOVE This bold design has the look of terrazzo but is made from porcelain. If the tiles get wet, the grip underfoot increases to an R10 slip rating. Flecks White tiles, 90x90cm, £50.40 per sqm, Porcelain Superstore (porcelainsuperstore.co.uk) BELOW To complete this project in Islington, central London, Paul Archer Design chose a polished concrete floor, £156 per sqm, with wet UFH system. The new level was dug out from the undercroft of a four-bedroom Victorian semi-detached house. (paularcherdesign.co.uk)

WORDS NAME HERE PHOTOGRAPHY NAME HERE

When choosing flooring, bear in mind that the cost of fitting can exceed the price of the material. Concrete and resin are contemporary options for open-plan spaces, while wood and stone have inviting textures. For a low-maintenance lookalike, consider porcelain tiles, which can accurately replicate most materials.

Hardwearing and beautiful, timber is a great choice for living spaces and bedrooms. Hardwoods can take heavy wear, while budget-friendly softwoods such as pine planks scratch more easily.

Engineered boards, made up of bonded layers, are more stable than solid timber and more suited to humid spaces. Reclaimed floors are the most eco-friendly option, or try Foresso (foresso.co.uk).

Its tiles and planks use timber offcuts and wood dust, bound together with bio-based resin.

Since it’s impossible to avoid splashes in a steamy bathroom or shower room, try water-resistant porcelain, terrazzo, encaustic tiles or luxury vinyl tiles (LVT).

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WORDS NAME HERE PHOTOGRAPHY NAME HERE

PROJECTS GUIDE TO FLOORS

ABOVE Designed by architect Joachim Bergh (joachimbergh.dk), this new-build summer home on the island of Bornholm, Denmark, is fitted with Solid Oak Variation two-strip flooring, from £63 per sqm, Junckers (junckers.co.uk)

Fitting wood ‘Wood flooring can be installed over practically any subfloor, providing it is sound, dry and flat,’ says Robert Walsh. ‘Take advice from your supplier on whether it can be nailed, glued or simply floated over the subfloor.’ Solid boards, if more than 18mm thick, can be nailed directly to joists, forming a structural floor.

Engineered wood can be floated over most floors. An underlay is required in some cases and at ground-floor level a damp-proof membrane must be in place. If you’re fitting solid wood to concrete in a new-build home, you must wait several months until the moisture level is 3 per cent or less.

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 123

ABOVE Nimtim Architects (nimtim.co.uk) revived a 1960s house in Croydon, repurposing the internal garage and opening up the ground floor. Terracotta tiles by the front door meet brick pavers laid in a basketweave pattern, which extend out into the garden. Burgos Nostalgie clay brick pavers (special order only), from Chelmer Valley (chelmervalley.co.uk), were cut to a bespoke size.

For similar terracotta tiles, try Living Terracotta (livingterracotta.com)

Laying tiles To avoid cracking, tiles must be laid on a completely flat surface such as a screeded concrete subfloor. To prevent movement in a suspended timber floor, the boards must be screwed down then topped with flooring-grade ply or, in areas prone to moisture, with tile backer board, which is impervious to water.

Stone slabs and tiles may have more specific requirements and need to be sealed after fitting. A wet room will have to be tanked or fully waterproofed before the floor finish is added.

ABOVE In this Cotswold stone home near Witney, Oxfordshire, warm-toned stone tiles were laid in the bathroom. They sit on a timber subfloor topped with tile backer board and a decoupling membrane. A protective coat of sealant was applied before and after grouting. Metro Limestone floor tiles, 900x600mm, £90 per sqm, Indigenous (indigenous.co.uk) 124 OCTOBER 2021 /

MAGAZINE.COM

ABOVE Architecture firm Paul Archer Design (paularcherdesign.co.uk) opened up and extended the lower-ground floor of this late Victorian town house in the Brook Green conservation area, west London. The resin floor was poured in thin layers by Senso (sensofloors.co.uk).

Similar flooring starts from £126 per sqm

PROJECTS GUIDE TO FLOORS

QUIET PLEASE Tips to keep the noise down by Poppy Szkiler, founder/CEO, Quiet Mark (quietmark.com) ● New-build floors must

achieve acoustic values as set out in Building Regulations Part E, and most new extensions must meet them too. The regulations apply to refurbishments as well, albeit with slightly less strict measures. Values for airborne sound insulation, such as speech or TV noise, and impact sound insulation, such as footsteps, must be met. ● Soundproofing materials

for new-build timber floors include acoustic floor battens, mineral wool, dry screed boards, acoustic floorboards, and direct-to-joist soundproofing. But what’s more important is the way they are installed. Appropriate sound insulation is achieved by increasing the mass or weight of the separating floor, increasing the structural isolation between the floor and ceiling elements, and filling cavities with sounddampening material. ● For a timber floor in an

PHOTOGRAPHY STALE ERIKSEN, ANDY STAGG, MEGAN TAYLOR

existing building, insulation between floor joists can reduce the airborne sound transmission, but again, adding mass and isolating layers will also be the key to soundproofing. Placing a thicker board layer beneath the floor finish will help, or you could add a suspended ceiling, using resilient sound-breaker bars to decouple it from the joists and reduce the sound transfer.

Applying concrete

Pouring resin

Polished concrete is a hardwearing option for downstairs spaces. The material, either in a natural colour or pigmented, is reinforced with a steel mesh and usually applied before doors and door tracks are in place.

To avoid cracking, joints filled with a flexible sealant are incorporated into large areas and at doorways. When dry, the concrete is polished and sealed. Microconcrete, a cement-based topping just 5-7mm thick, is less complex, but looks similar.

Poured resin’s seamless finish enhances openplan areas and it can be used upstairs too. It can be coloured to any shade and has some elasticity, resisting cracking. Resin made from sustainable natural biopolymers is eco-friendly. Installation onto a screeded floor is the usual method, though other subfloors can be used. Layers of primer, base coat, body coat and seal are poured, one per day over four or five days, building to an eventual thickness of 3mm.

● With concrete floors, the main aim is to eliminate impact noise, for example from footsteps. This is more important for floors that separate storeys than for ground floors. Structural isolation, or decoupling, can be achieved by an acoustic mass barrier ceiling. This consists of a few layers of dense plasterboard which is hung from the concrete floor using resilient hangers with mineral wool insulation in the cavity.

MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 125

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Home security A guide to selecting the best system for your needs, from professionally installed set-ups to cheaper off-the-shelf solutions WORDS CHRIS HASL AM

Installing a home security system used to be an expensive business involving specialist contractors, miles of cabling, ugly sensors and even less attractive CCTV cameras. But with the introduction of smart gadgets such as video doorbells and face-recognition cameras the industry has been transformed.

Every angle of this smart home is covered by cameras and all the doors have sensors. It features the Gira G1 control unit and HomeServer hub, which is linked to lighting and heating too. Budget £600 for the controller as part of a full system. (gira.com/uk)

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Nevertheless, there’s a difference between not missing a delivery due to a video doorbell and protecting your home from criminals.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk), burglaries cost the homeowner an average of £3,030, so keeping your property safe has never been more important.

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ABOVE This house’s impressive custom installation is controlled by Crestron and features a Texecom alarm system, 12 Hikvision IP cameras and a gated entry camera to monitor visitors, all of which can be viewed on connected TVs. £POA, Intuitive Homes (intuitivehomes.co.uk)

BESPOKE SET-UP

LLAMA GROUP AND JANEY BUTLER INTERIORS

Your security needs depend on the size of your home and budget. Few installers would recommend the same system for a mid-terrace house and a rural home with land, though some aspects remain the same. ‘A professionally installed system can consist of a few entrance sensors and an alarm, through to something with comprehensive CCTV coverage,’ says Kevin Spencer, head of product management at Yale UK (yalehome.co.uk). ‘It’s even possible to have thermal imaging, biometric locks, silent alarms, flood and fire alarms, and perimeter detection.’

You’re less likely to become a victim of burglary if you have a well-fitted alarm system. The first choice to make is between a non-interactive siren-only

alarm or a dialler model that contacts someone when triggered. As well as sounding an alarm, diallers can send an alert in different ways: by messaging your smartphone, contacting a nominated keyholder if you’re away, or notifying a monitoring service, which will visit your home to check for issues.

Monitoring is provided on subscription through companies such as ADT (adt.co.uk). Its range of products include 24/7 monitoring, police response, smart-style cameras and doorbells. These are set up to adapt to your everyday habits. To avoid false alarms, two indicators inside the house, such as a door sensor and a motion sensor, must both trigger for the police to visit.

LEFT Through the 7in display of the Gira video home station AP 7 you can see who’s at the door, silence the doorbell, switch on the light in the hallway, or talk directly to visitors. Budget £400 for the controller as part of a full system. (gira.com/uk)

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PROFESSIONAL RELIABILITY Before smart gadgets were available, home security was the preserve of big companies, with brands such as Yale, Veritas (veritas.com) and ADT offering turn-key solutions and installation.

These leading brands are still around, along with countless local and national installers, and homeautomation specialists that also cover security. To ensure you’re getting the most reliable service, choose a firm that is National Security Inspectorate (NSI) approved (nsi.org.uk). These companies are qualified to design, install and maintain alarms to professional industry, police and insurer-recognised standards.

Following installation, they will issue you with a certificate of compliance and apply for alarm monitoring, police or keyholding response, if applicable to your choice of system. For a list of NSI-approved security contractors, visit nsi.org.uk/company-finder.

LEFT Yale offers both professionally installed alarms and smart security gadgets such as the Pan & Tilt Wi-Fi camera, £59, with noise and motion detection, 1080p hi-res recording and two-way intercom. It also links with Yale alarms, activating when you leave and disarming to maintain privacy when you return. (yalehome.co.uk)

PLUG-IN PROTECTION Brands such as Nest (store.google.com), Ring (ring.com), Hive (hivehome.com) and Arlo (arlo.com) offer a range of sensors, high-definition cameras, floodlights and doorbells, as well as intruder, flood and fire alarms. All of these are designed for simple wireless installation and smartphone control.

The gadgets you choose are linked together via a hub, which is connected to your broadband router. When someone opens a window or door, or walks past a sensor, you receive an alert on your mobile. And if they stray into a camera’s field of vision, you’ll receive either a picture or short video clip. Some systems will sound an alarm or contact the emergency services, and many also enable you to talk through the camera.

Most products can be connected to voice control speakers such as Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri, so you can ask, ‘Hey Google, who’s at the front door?’

Brands such as Ring, Simplisafe (simplisafe.co.uk) and Boundary (boundary.co.uk) are on a par with professional systems because they include assisted monitoring service subscriptions for as little as £2.50 per month.

RIGHT Good value for money and easily expanded to feature doorbells and cameras, the five-piece Ring Alarm Security Kit includes Base Station, Keypad, Contact Sensor, Motion Detector and Range Extender for £219. (ring.com) 132 OCTOBER 2021 /

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HI-TECH ENTRY

THE BENEFIT OF CONNECTIVITY Home-automation gadgets can be set up to mimic your family’s movements throughout the day and night, which will enhance the protection provided by plug-in security products.

This is done by linking Wi-Fi-connected, app-controlled lighting from the likes of Lutron (lutron.com), Innr (innr.com), Hue (philips-hue. com) or Hey (heyimhome.co.uk), automated

blinds and curtains from brands such as Somfy (somfy.co.uk) and Crestron (crestron.com), and interactive audio speakers including Amazon Alexa (amazon.co.uk) and Sonos (sonos.com).

‘As a burglar, which would you prefer – the house with one motion-sensitive spotlight, or the one that looks lived in?’ says Jeroen Dalderop, founder of smart lighting brand Innr.

Smart locks have a number of advantages, as Phillip Pini, director of residential sales UK for TIG (tig.eu), explains ● You’ll never need to

remember your keys again with a smart lock or keyless entry system. Depending on the model you choose, if you have your mobile, code or fingerprint, you can let yourself in. ● Some designs are easier

to fit on doors with multi-point locking systems. ● You won’t need spare keys.

For instance, you can let the dog walker in by texting them a pass code that’s valid for specific days only. ● A model that features

geofencing technology creates a perimeter around your home, so it knows when you’ve left and can lock the door automatically.

This house is extremely well-protected with a variety of sensors and cameras, plus automated lighting and blinds. Intelligently controlled lighting scheme, £POA, Lutron (lutron.com)

COST COMPARISON For around £250, you can buy a plug-in/Wi-Fi smart security system with camera, hub, alarm and maybe a door or window sensor. But if you want to secure an entire house you’ll need multiple sensors and cameras. Window/door sensors cost from £30 each, and good cameras from £100. Ensure the products are compatible to avoid the need for multiple smart home apps.

A standard house alarm installation costs from £500 for a siren-only sensor set-up. But depending on your needs you could spend thousands as part of a more extensive custom installation. A monthly monitoring subscription starts from £3-£8 per month, rising to around £25 if you need police responses.

RIGHT Somfy’s smart home products include all-in-one motion-detection cameras, alarms and sensors, plus curtain and blind controllers that mimic a busy house when you’re out. Home Alarm system, £349, Irismo 45 RTS curtain motor, £450, Somfy (somfy.co.uk) MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 133

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BATHROOMS

Copper piping, taps and salvaged fittings are a feature of this bathroom renovation project by Design Storey (design-storey.co.uk).

For more ways to add character, turn to page 155

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KITCHEN UPGRADE

Glam it up Add a touch of opulence with the Eolis handleless kitchen and Art Deco-print doors from Schmidt. The digitally printed fronts are made from melamine high-density particleboard, and the MDF cabinets have an ultra-matt lacquered melamine surface. Eolis cabinets come in five colours including Navy, which is shown here with brass trim and Scala laminate worksurface in pale grey. Kitchens from £10,000, including delivery and fitting. (home-design.schmidt)

Thinking big Franke recently brought out the large single Centro sink.

Made from Fragranite, a mix of 80 per cent quartz and 20 per cent acrylic resin, the easy-to-clean design measures L780xD500xH200mm and comes in six shades. It costs £367 and there are optional extras such as this chopping board, £59. (franke.co.uk)

Get the green light Kent-based Kagu Interiors works with a select number of brands and designers to offer a carefully curated collection of furniture, ceramics and home accessories, as well as a full interior design service and bespoke items. The lighting range includes this Green Copper Conical Lamp with aged patina effect. It measures Dia300xH400mm and costs £285. (kagu-interiors.co.uk)

Special addition Extraction hob specialist Bora has launched the Multi-Drawer to reheat and defrost food, keep meals warm or cook at low temperatures. The W559xD537x H140mm integrated drawer is operated via touchscreen and can be individually designed to blend with any kitchen. It can also be combined with the new Bora X BO steam oven, allowing its functions to be controlled via the oven’s bigger display.

Prices for the Multi-Drawer start from £1,392. (bora.com)

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KITCHEN UPGR ADE

Hang it all This solid oak peg shelf is handcrafted by furniture-maker Nick James at his workshop in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Made using traditional woodworking techniques, the sturdy 100x100mm rails are available in various lengths from 200mm to 2,500mm and can be made to measure on request. Prices start from £30 for a 200mm shelf with two pegs. (jamesdesign.co.uk)

Hooked on classics Based in West Sussex, Wood Works Brighton designs, builds and installs bespoke kitchens and fitted furniture. The retro-inspired Unugu kitchen, with cutout handles that replicate a mid-century sideboard, features a recycled resin and plastic worksurface, and a freestanding island in fluted solid utile wood with a rubber top. From £18,000. (woodworksbrighton.co.uk)

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No-fuss fit Offering a contemporary, grout-free alternative to tiles, Splashback.co.uk’s metallic panels protect walls from steam, stains and splashes. Made from high-quality 6mm metal sheeting backed with durable MDF, they can be cut to size on site and glued directly to the wall. Available in brushed copper or platinum, each L3,000xH600mm panel costs £349.

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WORDS PAULA WOODS PHOTOGRAPHY CLARE BOWES

Inspired by Ercol’s 333 chair, Heritage is a new seating collection that retains the brand’s classic mid-century identity through its rounded shapes, spindle backs and splayed legs. Handcrafted from solid oak, each piece is available in a natural finish or painted black. Choose from a loveseat, armchair or chair. Loveseat, H810xW1,220x D510mm, £799. (ercol.com)

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Cost-effective design ideas Try these stylish solutions for updating your space without breaking the bank WORDS PAUL A WOODS

A winning combination Get a premium look for less with companies that offer custommade cupboard fronts, sides and worksurfaces to fit Ikea carcasses (ikea.com). Brands include Custom Fronts (customfronts.co.uk), Husk (madebyhusk.com) and Holte (holte.studio).

Made-to-order birch plywood fronts, cover panels and plinths, from £2,120 for a small kitchen, Plykea (plykea.com)

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Tried and tested Find affordable, top-quality second-hand or ex-display cabinets via specialists such as The Used Kitchen Company (theusedkitchencompany.com) and Used Kitchen Exchange (usedkitchenexchange.co.uk).

Hire a professional dismantling and fitting service for best results.

Ex-display Masterclass kitchen with range cooker, Belfast sink, tap and cooker hood, £15,999, Used Kitchen Exchange

Mix and match

Diffusion lines

It may take time, but it’s possible to find freestanding vintage cupboards that you can combine to create a characterful scheme for less money than the cost of some new units.

Wall cabinets, from £250 each, cupboard, £650, French oak table, £450, oak chapel chairs, £75 each, Coolicon shades, £75 each, upcycled iron benches, £250 each, all Scaramanga (scaramangashop.co.uk)

Some high-end brands offer supply-only ranges, including Kin by Mowlem (kinbymowlem.com) and British Standard by Plain English (britishstandardcupboards.co.uk).

Abigail Ahern x Herringbone fully assembled walnut MFC cabinets with MDF and tulipwood slab fronts, from £265 for a 600x600mm single base unit, kitchens from £5,000, Herringbone Kitchens (herringbonekitchens.com)

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PROJECTS KITCHENS

Layout matters To limit build costs, stick with an existing layout and avoid making structural changes. Linear runs without corner units or multiple small cabinets are the most cost-effective.

Suffolk kitchen in Cactus, from £8,000, Neptune (neptune.com)

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PROJECTS KITCHENS

Go it alone Though DIY skills are required, you can save money by fitting the kitchen yourself. If you are not confident in your DIY abilities, ordering everything online and arranging your own fitter can also be economical.

Melamine-faced birch ply cabinets with poplar and MDF fronts, from £560 for a 600x600mm base unit, kitchens from £8,000, British Standard by Plain English (britishstandardcupboards.co.uk)

Flat-pack in focus

In the know

Self-assembly units cost less than ready-made cabinets. Look for 18mm melamine-faced chipboard carcasses for longevity.

For a sophisticated finish, include a wine rack or pull-out storage instead of filler panels Metod/Kungsbacka kitchen with fronts made from recycled waste, from £750 for an eight-cabinet layout including worksurface, sink and tap, Ikea (ikea.co.uk)

Ask your builder or fitter to buy via their trade account, which is often discounted. Or they can shop from trade-only suppliers such as Howdens (howdens.com) or Benchmarx Kitchens (benchmarxkitchens.co.uk).

Cambridge kitchen in Forest Green, from £1,800 for an eight-unit kitchen, Benchmarx Kitchens

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A NEW LEASE OF LIFE Advice on buying a second-hand kitchen from Helen Lord, founder of Used Kitchen Exchange (usedkitchenexchange.co.uk) ● Opt for a premium brand. The

higher the original price tag, the better the build quality and the materials should be.

Look for carcasses at least 18mm thick and of solid construction.

Flat-pack designs aren’t ideal for reuse and laminate worksurfaces are almost impossible to reinstall. ● Consider the longevity of your

colour choice. Second-hand wooden cupboards can be easily repainted to create a new look, but lacquered ones can’t. ● Buy a kitchen that is a little

bigger than you need so you can tailor it to your space. ● If you’re not buying through

a company such as Used Kitchen Exchange, who will inspect the kitchen for you, ask to see it in person wherever possible. Check for water and heat damage, plus internal wear and tear. When buying online, request lots of photos and close-ups. ● Removing a pre-installed

kitchen – especially one with a stone worksurface – is highly technical. Employ an experienced professional to avoid damage. ● If you’re nervous about buying

second-hand, consider an ex-display model. These are technically brand new and, as they are designed to impress, often contain more gadgets and storage solutions than usual. ● Find a qualified professional

installer through the British Institute of Kitchen, Bedroom and Bathroom Installation (bikbbi.org.uk). It also has an online tool that estimates installation charges, helping you to plan your budget.

All on show Consider shelves instead of wall cabinets. They are less expensive and can be custom-made to suit your space and storage needs.

Kitchen in Farrow & Ball’s Pink Ground, from £8,000, British Standard by Plain English (britishstandardcupboards.co.uk) MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 145

Show your metal

Lasting benefits

For an affordable high-quality sink, consider a design made of stainless steel. Choose either 16- or 18-gauge steel, and opt for brushed or matt finishes to make scratches less noticeable.

Bredsjön stainless steel sink with visible front, W597xD690xH242mm, £299, Metod/Ringhult high-gloss kitchen, from £700 for an eight-cabinet layout including worksurface, sink and tap, Ikea (ikea.co.uk)

Buying high-performance, energy-efficient appliances will save you money on running costs. Shop around and compare prices from different retailers for the best deal or wait for the seasonal sales.

Integrated single DishDrawer, W599xD571xH410mm, with eco wash programme, £865, Fisher & Paykel (fisherpaykel.com)

Use resources sparingly

What’s on top?

Cut your bills with a boiling water tap that heats on demand to limit energy use. Or save water with an eco-friendly tap that has a built-in flow limiter, aerator or condensed spray.

Expression Square instant boiling water tap, £349, Intu Boiling Water Taps (intuboilingwatertaps.co.uk)

A quality worksurface will prolong the life of your kitchen.

Specialist online suppliers, local timber merchants and stonemasons often have the best prices.

Infinity Plus Shaker kitchen in Roman Leaf and Parchment with Xena Quartz Arabescato worksurfaces and solid oak breakfast bar, £6,562, Wren Kitchens (wrenkitchens.com)

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PHOTOGRAPHY SHANNON MCGRATH

PROJECTS KITCHENS

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IT’S ALL IN THE DETAIL Dennis and Louise’s new design from Wren Kitchens was planned meticulously from start to finish

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As a former World Snooker Champion, Dennis Taylor admires precision when he sees it, which is one of the reasons he’s so delighted with the new kitchen in his north Wales home. ‘I love the quartz worksurfaces,’ he says. ‘The great care and attention taken when it was brought in to be installed reminded me a little of the slate surface used for snooker tables.’

Sitting at the large island, he reflects on the beginning of the installation process. ‘Wren were really meticulous. When they came to measure up, it took three or four hours. But when I saw the result, I could understand why.’

ABOVE The Xena Quartz island provides an area to cook and relax in LEFT A downdraft extractor next to the hob meant Dennis could have feature copper lights above ABOVE RIGHT The kitchen is now a light, bright, airy space to enjoy with friends

‘The gloss finish bounces light around the space, and the copper colour is something of a theme’ Dennis admits that getting rid of the old kitchen was his wife Louise’s idea. ‘We used to have cream-coloured cabinets, which I loved but they were past their best. I’m absolutely delighted with our new Wren design. It’s the total opposite of what we had before.’

Dennis and Louise contrasted the white Xena Quartz worksurfaces and splashbacks with high-gloss Italian concrete-effect cabinets from Wren’s naturally inspired Elements range, along with striking copper profiles.

‘It’s so bright in the room now,’ Dennis explains. ‘The gloss finish bounces light around the space, and the copper colour is

something of a theme. Everything looks really great together.’

The design was a collaboration between Louise and Wren designer Phillip Garnett, with important contributions from Dennis and Louise’s sister.

‘We were recommended Wren Kitchens by a friend,’ says Dennis. ‘When we walked into the showroom in Chester, it was heaven for Louise.

She absolutely loved the huge range of choice.’

Although he was not involved in the design process on a day-to-day basis, Dennis kept up to date with progress via regular emails from Wren.

‘It was impressive that I could see what the kitchen was going to look like on my phone. There were a few modifications as we went along, but I could see the alterations at every stage.’

Dennis and Louise were keen to avoid having an overhead extractor. ‘We had a cooker hood in the old kitchen but this time wanted pendant lights instead,’ says Dennis. ‘The solution was to chose a clever Faber Fabula downdraft hood that sucks the steam from the Neff 5 Zone induction hob and directs it beneath the worksurface. It complements the Neff Slide-and-Hide oven.’

The only thing that remains is for the couple to enjoy their new kitchen with friends and family.

‘We haven’t had anyone round yet,’ says Dennis.

‘So I might get former World Snooker Champion Ken Doherty to officially open it. He’s coming over soon for a few games of golf. That would be quite special, wouldn’t it?’ ● Book your free design appointment today at wrenkitchens.com MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 149

B AT H R O O M E D I T

On the level Rak-Plano by Rak Ceramics is a one-piece vanity unit countertop for the brand’s Rak-Joy and Rak-Joy Uno furniture. Choose from a matt white solid surface or the wood-effect Techwood, which comes in three finishes. The top can be drilled and cut on site to get the perfect position for your basin and taps. Prices start from £584 for a W600xD460xH18mm countertop and a white, two-drawer Rak-Joy unit. (rakceramics.com)

Hot property The high-performance slimline Pioli ladder radiator can be floor- or wall-mounted and comes in more than 200 colours.

Designed by Andrea Crosetta for Italian heating brand Antrax IT, it stands 207cm tall, is available in 40mm or 50mm widths, and is made from 100 per cent recyclable carbon steel.

Prices start from around £578. (antrax.it)

In the loop Combining fluid curves with linear storage, the steam-bent Housel shelf with mirror is part of the sustainable Ash Accessories range by lighting and furniture designer Tom Raffield. Handcrafted in Cornwall from responsibly sourced timber and sealed with a natural, eco-friendly matt oil blend, it measures W560xD165xH602mm and can be finished with a tan, brown or black leather hanging strap. Priced £245. (tomraffield.com)

Along the right lines The new Mazes tile collection from Bert & May was inspired by the geometry of Art Deco architecture and design. Handmade in Spain and featuring a series of precise lines and rounded corners, the three designs can be combined together to create bespoke patterns with unique twists and turns. Measuring 200x200mm, the cement tiles are suitable for walls and floors, and available in Opal, Marigold or Old Iron colourways, priced £7.68 per tile. (bertandmay.com)

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B AT H R O OM E D I T

Go with the flow The Dot316 Round brassware range is made from 100 per cent recyclable stainless steel and has an eco-friendly flow rate of less than nine litres per minute. Designed by Studio BMB Progretti for Ritmonio, it includes deck- and wall-mounted taps, as well as shower fittings, and comes in three finishes. Prices start from £329.44 for a 300mm-high basin standing 360-degree spout. (ritmonio.it)

Screen idol This glamorous shower screen from Matki features metallic mesh between laminated layers of safety glass. It is available in standard or bespoke sizes, and the solid brass frame comes in several finishes to complement or contrast with the mesh. The EauZone framed wet room panel with mesh glass costs from £3,481.20 for a 780mm silver mesh screen and £3,756 for gold, with optional installation priced at £447. (matki.co.uk)

Seeing double Sienna from Aston Matthews is a cast concrete twin basin designed for use with wall-mounted taps. Manufactured by Kast, it is available in 28 colours including Forest Green, and comes in four sizes. Prices start from £2,178 for a W1,100xD420xH180mm model, shown here with Index Scuffed Brass wall taps, £556. (astonmatthews.co.uk).

Spanish bathroom manufacturer Acquabella has launched its Acquawhite collection in the UK. The bathtubs, basins and countertops have clean lines and simple shapes, and are made from Dolotek, an eco-friendly engineered stone that’s durable and easy to clean. The freestanding Lech tub measures L1,704x W813xD533mm and costs £3,175. (acquabella.com) 152 OCTOBER 2021 /

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WORDS PAULA WOODS

All white now

PROJECTS BATHROOMS

Ways to add character How to create a bathroom that’s anything but cool and clinical WORDS PAUL A WOODS

Paper the walls Wallpaper is a surefire way to add interest and texture. As long as it’s out of the reach of splashes in a well-ventilated room, standard wallpaper should be fine. But in wet areas go for a splash-proof option. Wall & Deco’s waterproof Wet System (wallanddeco.com) can be used in showering spaces.

Aspen Pine wallpaper, £65 per roll, Graham & Brown (grahambrown.com)

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Heritage charm Period-style fittings and furniture evoke nostalgia for a bygone era. Classic designs, natural materials and painted walls create a look that’s warm and inviting.

Bathroom and bespoke vanity unit designed by Laura Passey Interiors (laurapassey.com). Weather Copper Bateaux, from £6,000 for a L1,500xW705xD710mm bath, La Fontaine aged copper bath filler, £1,123.20, and 3-hole basin mixer, £777.60, all Catchpole & Rye (catchpoleandrye.com). Rockwell mirror, from £888, The Water Monopoly (thewatermonopoly.com)

A warm heart

Timeless style

Rebuild and modernise an existing fireplace or add a non-flue design. Modern glass-fronted, balanced flue gas fires don’t require a chimney, but will need venting through an exterior wall.

Lakes By Yoo project by Stephenson Wright (stephensonwright.com).

Stone One freestanding composite bath, L1,700xW870xD530mm, £6,657.95, CP Hart (cphart.co.uk). Balanced flue gas fire, £POA, Marble Hill (marblehill.co.uk)

Vintage fittings, furniture and accessories bring a well-worn appeal to a new scheme. Most reclamation specialists carry a wide range of bathroom pieces and many offer restoration services.

Antique reclaimed terracotta and decorative tiles, from £210 per sqm, Maitland & Poate (maitlandandpoate.com)

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PROJECTS BATHROOMS

Gleaming metal Keep copper pipework visible for an industrial-chic look that will also save you money. Team with matching brushed or burnished utility brassware, or ask your plumber to fashion basic taps and radiators from piping, joints and valves.

Complete project, £8,447, by Pepper & Co (pepperand.co). Copper pipe heated towel rail constructed by plumber, £90. Exposed shower and valve, £100, eBay (ebay.co,uk). Glass screen, £667, Cameo Glass (cameoglassuk.co.uk). Victoria tiles, £15.98 per sqm, Topps Tiles (toppstiles.co.uk) MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 157

Focal-point tub A bath in an unusual material will really stand out. Try Lusso for stone (lussostone.com), Riluxa for solid surface (riluxa.com), William Garvey for FSC-certified cedar, maple or teak (williamgarvey.co.uk), and Granorte for cork (granorte.co.uk).

Bathroom by Barber Osgerby (barberosgerby.com). Custom-made oak bath, £POA, Alegna (alegna.eu). Uno bath spout, from £1,477, One 3-hole basin mixer Select 170, from £760, overhead 280 2jet shower with arm, from £1,280, overhead 75 1jet EcoSmart shower with arm, from £256, all Axor (axor-design.com)

Homespun chic

Upcycle revolution

For a modern rustic theme, clad the walls and ceiling in reclaimed timber boards or corrugated metal panels. They add texture and can be used to disguise less-than-perfect walls.

Galvanised steel corrugated sheets and reclaimed timber boards feature in this Cornish rental property available through Unique Homestays (uniquehomestays.com)

For a characterful design that doesn’t cost the earth, turn a vintage cabinet or sideboard into a vanity unit.

It’s a straightforward job for anyone competent in DIY, or hire a joiner to transform a flea-market find.

Bathroom with restored 1960s Kofod-Larsen for G-Plan wooden sideboard, £2,000, Luke McClelland Design (mcclelland-design.com)

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PROJECTS BATHROOMS

PRETTY BRIGHT Lighting advice from Sanjit Bahra, founder and director of Designpluslight (designpluslight.com) ● Decorative fittings such

as pendants, chandeliers and wall lights generally go in zone 2 – that is within 600mm of the bath to a height of 2.25m and 600mm around the basin.

Lights in this area must be IPX4 rated or greater. ● Those further than 600mm

away from the bath or above 2.25m high don’t have to be IP rated. Get them installed by a certified electrician with a fixed RCD (residual current device) in the fuseboard for added safety. The fuse will trip if the circuit is compromised.

Choose designs with no exposed bulbs or, at the very least, that have a shade on any fittings. ● LED bulbs can sometimes be overpowering, so make sure your lighting is on a dimmable circuit. This is especially important with mirror lights as they bounce a great deal of reflected light into the space. ● Bulb colour temperature

is measured in Kelvins. Opt for warmer white 2,800K bulbs and certainly no cooler than 3,000K. Warm dim bulbs – LED bulbs that can be dimmed down to a warmer colour temperature – will also create a lovely glow at lower settings and, when behind a shade or opal cover, offer a better decorative effect. Manufacturers include Zico (zico.lighting), Philips (lighting.philips.co.uk) and Tala (tala.co.uk).

Style it up Include decorative elements to contrast with functional fittings. Hang artwork, choose stylish lights, and add an upholstered seat if space allows. Remember to specify a waterproof fabric.

Cielo Elle Ovale basin with steel framework and mirror, £3,732, Cielo Smile loo, £1,926.72, and bidet, £856.70, Ashton & Bentley Audrey freestanding bath in Farrow & Ball Hague Blue, £4,372.80, Drench Frahm shower screen, £3,377, Cielo Sessanta shower tray, £1,282.80, Gessi Inciso brushed brass brassware, £9,380.40, Vogue Venture brushed brass radiator, £1,036.80, all CP Hart (cphart.co.uk) MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 159

TILES

the new simple way to buy tiles BATHROOM TILES KITCHEN TILES FLOOR TILES MOSAICS NATURAL TILES OUTDOOR TILES UNDERFLOOR HEATING BATHROOM ACCESSORIES TILE ACCESSORIES FREE TILE SAMPLES NATIONWIDE DELIVERY

We appreciate that your outdoor space is just as important to you as your home interior - that’s why at Crown Tiles we offer a wide and impressive variety of exterior tiles, all with amazing traits and stunning surface designs.

Spanning from cool, contemporary stone effect tiles to more warm and classical designs, there is bound to be something for everyone in our range.

Crown Tiles is committed to offering you the best value for money for the highest quality products, sourced from some of biggest tile manufactures in the world. We offer you the best possible choice of tiles, ranging from porcelain, ceramic, natural stone, inc. wood effect, everything to complete your project.

Any enquires freephone

0800 156 0756

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PROJECTS BATHROOMS

Freedom to create A washstand or vanity unit can be used as an eye-catching feature. There are a huge number of designs to choose from, so find a piece you love and use it as a starting point around which to build the scheme.

Edinburgh undermount oak washstand with honed Carrara marble countertop and ceramic basins, H965xW1,490xD555mm, £2,615, Neptune (neptune.com)

Biophilic boost Use plants to create a living wall. ‘The PlantBox soil-based system from Growing Revolution (growingrevolution.com) is a stackable kit with integral water reservoir,’ says designer Oliver Heath.

Alternatively, try a modular hydroponic system such as Viridiwall by Vertology (vertology.uk.com).

Bathroom by Oliver Heath Design (oliverheath.com). Green wall, £POA, Enterprise Plants (enterpriseplants.com).

Babylon bath, L2,000xW800xD720mm, from £7,522.50, Fired Earth (firedearth.com) MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 161

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• Subscribe on a month-by-month basis and you can cancel at any time • Plus, get free Grand Designs Live tickets worth £20 each VISIT granddesignssubscriptions.com/CGRANDP1 OR CALL 01858 438792 and quote CGRANDP1 This price applies to UK Direct Debit subscribers only. Grand Designs Live is a biannual event taking place in London and Birmingham. A free ticket to each Grand Designs Live show will be included for print subscribers with the May and October issues each year. Please note the issue including the free ticket is subject to change. For full terms and conditions, visit granddesignsmagazine.com/terms-conditions

PROJECTS BATHROOMS

Go bold Graphic patterns in strong colours work well in tiny rooms, distracting attention from the compact dimensions. Avoid small prints, which can have the opposite effect.

Stellar Navy matt porcelain 320x320mm hexagon tiles, £94.73 per sqm, Helix Blue Decor 2 porcelain 200x200mm tiles, £45.60 per sqm, Mandarin Stone (mandarinstone.com) MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 163

Reveal architectural detail

Add an accent

Highlight areas of interest in the fabric of the building by exposing brickwork, floorboards, beams or concrete surfaces.

Bathroom by Mark Lewis Interior Design (marklewisinteriordesign.com).

Astonian Epoca cast-iron bath, L1,700xW700xD675mm, from £3,264.30, Aston Matthews (astonmatthews.co.uk). Industrial swan-neck bathroom light, £185, Fritz Fryer (fritzfryer.co.uk)

Bring colour to the room with a basin or bath in a bright hue. You can get a custom finish from companies such as BC Designs (bcdesigns.co.uk), Waters Baths of Ashbourne (watersbaths.co.uk) or Victoria + Albert (vandabaths.com).

Ellipse countertop basin, W550xD330xH125mm, in bespoke RAL 3015 Pink, £375, Waters Baths of Ashbourne (watersbaths.co.uk)

Natural beauty A bath panel or feature wall in a standout material such as a length of richly veined and vividly coloured stone can serve as bathroom artwork. Or replicate the effect with more affordable, rectified porcelain tiles and slabs.

Azul Imperial Natural Quartzite, from £850 per sqm, Cullifords (geraldculliford.co.uk)

164 OCTOBER 2021 /

MAGAZINE.COM

PHOTOGRAPHY ABIGAIL FAHEY, ZAC AND ZAC, RORY GARDINER

PROJECTS BATHROOMS

NEW LOOK! The essential online resource for anyone embarking on a self-build, renovation or home-improvement project

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QUOTE CE REFEREN EN GDM WH A YOU GET QUOTE

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• Employers Liability – £10 million • Optional cover for hired and owned plant

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Introducing the best products and services for your project

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION Please call 020 3225 5200 ext 688 or email richard.woodall@grand-designs.com

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Luxury Whirlpool Baths

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168 OCTOBER 2021 /

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RESOURCES THE ALTERNATIVE CONSERVATORY TIE BAR The TIEWIRE is the component of choice and has solutions for new conservatory roofs, refurbishments, solid roof replacements and traditional construction.

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MAGAZINE.COM / OCTOBER 2021 169

PROFILE

MY GRAND IDEA –

Architect Sanya Polescuk retrofitted a 1950s house in Belsize Park, north London, with sustainable technologies

170 OCTOBER 2021 /

— What needed changing?

With big single-glazed windows and poorly insulated walls, the house was very energy inefficient and only had electric heating. Instead of introducing gas we made it as selfsufficient as possible by relying on free power from the air and sun, topped up in winter with electricity from the grid via a 100 per cent renewable energy supplier.

— Tell us about its eco-friendly features Working with a sustainable energy consultant, we tiled the back roof with solar thermal panels, which provide hot water, and solar photovoltaics, which convert sunlight into electricity.

The latter power an air-source heat pump, which delivers water at the optimum temperature for underfloor heating. Any surplus electricity is sold

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back to the grid. Our monthly energy bills are between £50 and £85.

— And the insulation?

Pumping insulation into the cavity walls wouldn’t have been enough.

We also added it to the inside of the walls, under the floors and in the roof. Another green element was the mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system, which was needed to ventilate the bathrooms and kitchen, and to remove airborne pollutants as the property sits near a busy road. We also reused as many materials as we could, including the parquet flooring and concrete pavers.

— Who oversaw the design?

I was both client and mentor to my colleague Alex Blundell, who was the lead architect.

— How do you feel about what has been achieved?

I hope the house will inspire people to become fossil fuel-free, even if they live in towns and cities. At the very least I hope it makes people rethink their use and source of power.

Sanya Polescuk Architects, polescukarchitects.com

ABOVE The project cost £350,000, with around £100,000 spent on renewables and external fabric improvements including windows, walls and roof LEFT The cavity walls were insulated with expanded polystyrene beads, while the roof, floor and interior walls were lined with phenolic insulation boards

WORDS ALICE WESTGATE PHOTOGRAPHY EMANUELIS STASAITIS

What was the property like when you found it?

My husband and I bought this threebedroom house in 2019 as we plan to downsize when we retire in a few years’ time. Part of a post-war infill terrace, the house was totally unloved and had been on the market for two years. But the fact that it had been empty for so long meant we would pay less VAT on any refurbishment.

— Have you worked on a project like this before?

My practice specialises in breathing new life into old buildings, but our niche has always been solid brick Georgian, Edwardian and Victorian houses. This project allowed us to explore what is possible with a mid-century home instead – a useful exercise as there are lots of buildings from this era that need updating.

SEE US AT STAND G28A

Your home.

Your story.

A Baufritz home is of unique beauty and quality.

It is tailored precisely to your wants and needs.

As a fully managed project, it is built to the highest possible standards.

Be inspired by the story of self-builder Astrid Woloszscuk and her family domicile in London at www.baufritz-gd.co.uk/homestories