Influenced by iconic 1960s design, the owners of this new-build home included the latest efficiency measures and renewables
WORDS JAYNE DOWLE PHOTOGRAPHY JIM STEPHENSON
The last thing that Sally Wiles wanted when she and her husband, Richard, decided to build their own home was a white box. They admired the Ahm House in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, by architect Jørn Utzon, which was built in 1962 and is an influential mid-century modern design. They wanted this aesthetic reimagined in a contemporary way – and not a minimal building with the structure hidden behind white-painted plasterboard.
Retailers Sally, 58, and Richard, 62, set about finding an architect by approaching the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). ‘It sent us a list of local people, but nobody seemed right,’ she says. ‘I researched national award-winning architects, but they weren’t interested in working in the East Midlands. So I started looking at the regional award winners.’
They eventually narrowed the choice down two practices, paying both to build a model of their proposed design so they could choose the one that they liked best. Spencer Guy, their chosen architect, prioritises integrating features as part of the primary design. ‘The mid-century sensibility considers each feature of the house as adding up to the whole,’ he says. ‘The 1960s American Case Study Houses include exposed structures and brickwork left self-finished as part of the design. I hope that our houses will look the same in 50 years, because they have been designed with everything considered carefully from the start.’
Sally and Richard have two children, Martha, 22, and Victor, 20, who split their time between home and university. The couple had spent the previous five years looking for a house with a bigger garden. But they felt that everything they looked at was out of proportion, with too many bedrooms for the amount of living space. Turning their attention to finding land or a development property, they came across a cottage on a 4,000sqm plot. ‘It had little architectural merit,’ says Sally. And as there were no planning objections to their proposed new five-bedroom home, it was duly demolished.
The planners didn’t issue any special demands, but the site has a significant level change from north to south with about 3m difference from the road to the rear garden. Wanting the house to appear the same size as the cottage, Spencer took care to scale the building in relation to the
