The purchasers got here to us having seen the home in Highgate Cemetery,’ remembers Eldridge London’s affiliate director Mike Gibson. That award-winning undertaking, created again when the studio was a partnership between Nick Eldridge and Piers Smerin, looms above the historic North London burial floor, unashamedly fashionable in kind and materials. This undertaking referred to as as an alternative for a recent seaside home in Shoreham, on England’s south coast.
The positioning itself was beforehand occupied by a small chalet bungalow, a top-heavy construction with a big dormer roof punctured by small home windows for the upstairs bedrooms. As Gibson remembers, it was typical for the world, however completely did not capitalise on the placement, with no seaside views from the residing areas and a avenue entrance dominated by a storage.
(Picture credit score: Lyndon Douglas)
Step inside this Sussex seaside home
Fortunately, and maybe uncommonly within the UK, ‘the planners have been up for every thing’. The plot is flanked by a Sixties home with a monopitch roof on one aspect and a contemporary timber-clad seaside home by ABIR Architects on the opposite. The brand new design replaces the prevailing construction in its entirety and has been designed to make the most of views of the ocean and shingle seaside, full with what the designer describes as ‘vital architectural moments’. In brief, it’s daring and uncompromising, favouring placing geometry and composition that doesn’t limit the inside programme.
‘We raised the constructing above the shingle to make the most of the views,’ says Gibson. To realize this, the primary residing areas are set on a plinth, flanked by the storage, with a storage and altering room on the similar stage because the newly landscaped backyard. From the triple-height entrance that rises to the total peak of the home, an interlocking spiral staircase leads up half a stage to the open-plan lounge. On the east aspect, two ranges, every with a bed room, rest room and utility room, adjoin the higher-ceilinged lounge, whereas an inside void reaches as much as the roof. Each units of rooms have their very own balconies, every utilizing an angular kind that permits gentle to cascade down.
(Picture credit score: Lyndon Douglas)
The plinth offers simply sufficient elevation to present these all-important sea views. ‘You’re getting into into an area which you could’t actually admire from avenue stage, beginning with a high-ceilinged hallway,’ says Gibson. The spiral staircase turns again on itself in an S configuration to reorientate you in direction of the view as you climb to the lounge. Right here you’ll discover a richly upholstered dialog pit, alongside the kitchen and eating space, with a tall window looking to sea.
Gibson describes the home as a ‘vessel with objects inside it’, and particulars such because the seashell-inspired staircase, pink seating space, sculptural lighting and carved tub all act like components inside a cupboard. The principle bed room can be handled like a compartment, ‘a floating timber field’ above the residing area, the place the orientation shifts from a straight south-facing view in direction of the ocean. Eager to protect an empty horizon, the mattress is angled at 45 levels to the construction, dealing with south east in order to keep away from direct views of the Rampion offshore wind farm. The opposite two seaward bedrooms face south west.
(Picture credit score: Lyndon Douglas)
The home was constructed by a agency of native contractors with an extended historical past of engaged on new builds within the space. The principle bed room and balcony are hung from the metal body on the south aspect, whereas to the north, there’s extra ambiguity. ‘We’re not responding to a wealthy streetscape, so we’ve got a façade that doesn’t give an excessive amount of away,’ says Gibson. ‘There’s a way of privateness – it’s summary, but in addition type of formal.’ He cites the affect of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s seascape pictures on the home, which is clad in panels of strong resin composite mixed with frosted glass to present a way of each mist and thriller. ‘On sunny days, it’s like a white field,’ he says, declaring the ‘lantern’ element on the higher proper of the road façade. With three glazed sides – two in frosted glass, the highest in clear – this ingredient brings gentle down into the doorway corridor, in addition to the adjoining foremost rest room.
The design is intentionally strong to deal with the marine local weather, with the balconies offering photo voltaic management, and hard-wearing accoya wooden used for slats and balustrades. Given the purchasers first approached Eldridge London again in 2017, the undertaking is a testomony to endurance and belief. The result’s daring and dynamic but in addition personal and secluded, a construction that creates its personal inside world whereas additionally enhancing the encircling panorama.
(Picture credit score: Lyndon Douglas)
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