Open house

HOUSE STYLE: A modernised, early Victorian house is one of

many open to the public this weekend
Alexandra Campbell
Saturday, 14 September 1996
When the architect Bernhard Blauel and his wife, Mina, were
looking for a family home in 1992, they had to anticipate their
needs for several years ahead. Would the house be suitable for
a new baby? What if they wanted to rent out a room, or their
toddlers grew into teenagers who needed their own territory?
Would they be able to accommodate an ailing parent? What if
they decided to run their business from home and the business
then outgrew the home?
The solution, if you can afford it, is to buy a five-bedroom
house in a desirable area with a granny flat and at least two
entrances. Such houses usually have a pounds 500,000 price-
tag, so Blauel designed a completely flexible home within the
frame of a derelict Victorian terraced house that cost only a
third of the price.
Currently, it is a three-bedroom house with a ground-floor
living-room that is open-plan to the kitchen, plus a large one-
room extension that houses his office. If the office outgrows
the home, it could become a stunning extra living room, but it
has been designed to divide easily into another two bedrooms
and a bathroom or a separate one-bedroom flat for a
teenager, nanny, grandparent or tenant. And because the
whole house was renovated with a steel frame, rather than
rebuilt with the standard method of load-bearing walls, tearing
down a wall or putting one up should be little more trouble
than replanning a room. The living room could easily be turned
into two rooms, and the kitchen could be open-plan to the hall
rather than the main room. The plumbing and services, too,
have been laid out with the aim of making access and re-
routing a simple job.
As an architect, Blauel first considered building from scratch,
but finding a plot in London - or any other big town - is almost
impossible. And big warehouse conversions don't necessarily
make ideal family homes. That left the standard terraced
house, whose two-on-two room layout and long, thin shape is
familiar to every city-dweller.
The Blauels found a rundown, flat-fronted, early Victorian
cottage with a small backyard, conveniently located for the
City and the West End in Kennington, for pounds 69,000. Then
Blauel designed a layout that could absorb the typical changes
of family life over several decades, setting himself a budget
that guaranteed their money back if they wanted to sell.
The Blauels faced the extra challenge of strict conservation
guidelines, which limited what they could do. But Bernard
specialises in modern additions, or conversions for period
buildings, that are sympathetic to the ideal, without actually
copying the period style. "I worked with English Heritage
throughout the project, and they have told me that this is a
good example of a period home evolving to meet the needs of
contemporary life," he says. And although the interior looks hi-
tech, with steel-mesh walls and open fireplaces, an owner with
more conventional tastes could easily replace them with
brickwork, and add mantelpieces and other period detail.
All the walls had collapsed behind pebbledash render, and the
interior had to be gutted. "At one point," says Mina, "we had
demolished so much that the building society wouldn't give us
enough money to go on to the next stage, because the actual
value of the site was less than the sum of money we needed
to borrow." This is, apparently, a common Catch-22. Building
societies lend money according to the value of the house and,
if you are doing a conversion, lend it in stages on the
assumption that each phase adds value. Demolition doesn't
always come into that equation, and the Blauels, like many
other private renovators, had to finance the next step
privately.
To extend the cottage, they had to work within strict planning
guidelines. They could add no more than 10 per cent of the
total floor space, and the boundary walls were not to be raised
above 8ft. The new extension runs across the back wall of the
yard, linked to the original L-shape and creating a house that
goes round three sides of a small patio. The Blauels sunk the
floor of the extension a few feet into the ground to give the
room a good ceiling height. Although they couldn't create new
windows, an opaque white glass and zinc roof give it both light
and privacy, while on the patio side, the "wall" is effectively
one big window in sheet glass, so it has the airy feel of a
conservatory. There are now five people working there.
Even fans of terraced houses admit that light is a problem, as
the buildings are so long and thin. Blauel has created a house
where light floods in from every angle by having a light-well in
the roof over the staircase, and another double-glazed,
strengthened window, instead of the old back wall, facing on
to the patio.
Inside the main house, Blauel tinkered with plans for several
variations, all of which could still be carried out if the family's
needs or tastes change. They finished up with a sizeable hall
and stairwell with storage, and one main living/dining room
with a small open-plan kitchen off it. A division of expanded
steel mesh between the hall and living-room enhances the
feeling of space and light.
English Heritage required them to render the house in either
white or hopsack (sand-coloured). "We chose the hopsack
because it seemed a more natural colour and it is more
forgiving of imperfections than pure white," says Blauel. He
admits to not having replaced some of the decorative stucco
band around the house yet, but he has paid close attention to
the windows. "They're not exactly the same as the
neighbours," he says, but in fact many of those would have
been changed in Victorian or Edwardian times.
"When we first started we thought this house would be an
intermediate stage in our lives," says Blauel. "But now I think
we'll probably stay here a long time because it can fulfil all our
needs and we love the sense of light and space"
Opening now, near you
The Blauel's home at 37 Claylands Road, London SW8, is open
to the public from 1-5pm tomorrow as part of Heritage Open
Day (14-15 September) and London Open House.
Heritage Open Day is a Europe-wide initiative to open up
buildings of special merit to the public. These include clubs,
institutions, company offices, government buildings and
private houses. Architects, students and historians will also be
giving tours. Entrance is free, although a few venues require
advance booking. Detailed lists can be found at Tourist
Information Centres and participating local libraries. For more
information on London Open Houses, call 0891 600061. You
can reach the Heritage Open Day hotline on 0891 800603.