This month I started building the GB Guest House: GB is branding speak for Glass Box, or Great Britain; as it is my aim to rent the house out via AirBnB as, architectural tourism in the area of outstanding natural beauty in the Herefordshire Wye Valley.
The design is based on two of my most favourite buildings: The Farnsworth House – by Mies van der Rohe, and Skywood House – by Graham Phillips.
Mies described his Farnsworth House as ‘almost nothing’ as it removed decoration, clutter and reduced the house to its essence – shelter, function and good proportions. It was also located adjacent to a river and was subject to annual flooding, hence the structure was elevated on stilts above the ground.
Why am I attracted to Farnsworth as a concept for my own house?
Because it is a simple steel frame that uses standard sections expressed externally. My father is a blacksmith and my family history has a long tradition, spanning 5 generations, working with forged metalwork. So steel is familiar to me, and readily available, I also like the precision that working in steel brings.
Skywood House uses the work of Mies as its inspiration as much of the plan of Skywood uses the Farnsworth modular plan and proportion system to set it out.
What is great abut Skywood is it is all about the plan. It uses a ‘pin wheel’ where walls meet at a central point, and span outwards, like spokes on a wheel. This allows the building to appear much larger than it actually is, as it scoops up the surrounding landscape, so that the local setting and views are interlinked directly with the house interior. Mies said ‘Less is More’; with Skywood you get more-for-ess.
Whilst this is my inspiration the over riding control factor is budget. I wanted the external walls to be clad in living greenwalls and at £300 per sqm they are the first sacrifice. I am sure there will be others too. But at the project is on site and it will be completed.
The ground works are currently underway and whilst it is very wintery at the moment, which isn’t a great time to start building, I have secured the planning permission and the project should be completed by August 2016.
Updates to follow. GT
Project Details:
Architect : Garry Thomas Contractor : JDW Building and Conservation Engineer : Martyn Peters Approved Building Inspector : Salus Ltd Location : Fownhope, Herefordshire