Chapter 2 of 24
Long Wall House Suffolk
I begin with a small house in Suffolk, built in 1964. It illustrates in a
direct and simple way an approach to architecture which is common to all the
work I'm going to discuss. Architecture remains about people, and that is why
perhaps a house is both so fascinating and so difficult to design. The link
is immediate. How, given a site, can we help enrich the lives of those who are
going to make it their home? How can a vital relationship be struck between
the man-made and the natural, between the small-scale and the large-scale, and
between the way of life and the environment, which is at the heart of it all.
In this case, the site was an exposed one and sloped gently to the west, with
a view for about three miles. Here, I wanted to establish a relationship
between the hearth and the horizon; and so the spaces develop, in graduated
steps between these extremes. The instinctive place of rest, however, the
psychological centre of gravity, if you like, the point of equilibrium, must
be the hearth.
The house was erected in two distinct and separate operations. The raised
built ground and all walls were first constructed in brick, then a timber frame,
a kind of timber canopy, enclosed the area of the house itself. Thus the visual
weight of the terraces and the walls located and defined the spaces in landscape,
whilst a light roof covered a part of it only. In this way, and this is the
point I particularly wanted to underline, the manner in which the house was made
reflects the spatial idea, and helps to emphasize and to lend weight to the
architectural intention itself.