The project was started basically from scratch as only the shape and the surface area were left from the house the clients bought. The initial building was rather unremarkable and looked like an ordinary summer house. O&A London team spent a long time working on it as any reconstruction is always more difficult than building from new. We demolished everything apart from the bearing walls and were left with just the cubic metres of space entirely at our disposal.
Based on the features of the space and landscape the designers chose modern constructivism as the main style. As panoramic windows on the ground floor are not a feature of constructivism, we can call it modern constructivism. The entire outer design of the house is built based on combining light and dark surfaces of dark wood and shutters and white painted walls. As we tried to adhere to the constructivism style, we tried to avoid using stone because constructivism does not usually feature expensive materials. Wooden parts presented a problem as they would suffer some degree of damage over time due to our unstable climate. For this reason, regular wood was replaced with thermo-ash.
In order to create a visual balance from the outside and to widen the indoor space it was decided to build a glass veranda. It completely changed the look of the house in terms of accents and overall style.
Sometime later a separate guest house was built on the grounds. It also contains a garage and boiler room. The staff bedroom, living area and bathrooms are on the first floor. This building stands out due to its unusual modern architecture and its style is completely on the other end of the spectrum from constructivism.
Like the interior, the exterior of this project is built on contrasts that do not clash but seamlessly intertwine with one another creating the overall picture.
