A one off house is a beautiful bespoke thing that intimately reflects the personalities of the people that commissioned it - unlike commercial office blocks which are impersonal anonymous spaces designed for anybody to inhabit. Is it architecturally possible to create a perfect blend of business and pleasure?
This is an architect's dream home, properly built with a simple palette of luxurious materials sparingly used, controlled changes of scale, beautiful detailing and yet everywhere unremitting, hard architectural lines. It's not a building you expect a family to thrive in. And yet thrive they do.
You might think of this place as some kind of superficial style statement, a cliche whose glamour and beauty should really belong on the pages of some glossy magazine. Except I'm going to disagree because I think that beauty and glamour and style are not at all superficial. In fact for thousands of years in buildings like this it's been these things that make us feel welcome, that make us feel comfortable, that flatter us. They're the qualities that make us feel good, and you can't ask more of architecture than that...
The finished house has divided opinion - slick minimalism or car showroom? You decide...
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