The Manser Practice

Sea Glass House

Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg

SEA GLASS HOUSE

The Manser Practice Architects + Designers

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Elliot Wood Partnership LLP

GROUND STABILITY & SUBSTRUCTURE
Malcolm Woodruff Associates

LANDSCAPE DESIGN
John Brookes Landscape Design

AREA
280.0 m²

GENERAL CONTRACTOR
John Peck Construction Ltd

LOCATION
United Kingdom

YEAR
2008

CATEGORY
Houses

Text description provided by architect.

The Clients brief was for their weekend and holiday house, a compact 1960’s bungalow, to be enlarged, giving more living accommodation and enhancing the views of the sea to the north and west. Maintaining the private/secret nature of the site was also a requirement.

Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg
Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg

An initial proposal to simply add a glass pavilion living room to the existing house appeared to fulfil the brief. Keeping the house single storey kept the building low enough not to have a view of nearby houses but adding the new space to the north of the existing house located the main living space in a position with a more commanding view over the woods below to the Solent beyond.

As the design developed however it became obvious that the size and standard of the new extension would only serve to exaggerate the cramped and substandard nature of the existing house. A decision was taken in favour of wholesale redevelopment; maintaining the concept of the initial proposal but ensuring that the completed project had a coherence and consistency of quality.

Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg
Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg

The house is approached from a generally suburban and unremarkable road down gravel drive through a wood. The initial view of the house is deliberately unclear.

A long sinuous reflective black wall sitting amongst the trees conceals the presence of the house and beyond. Views of the sea are also only hinted at with glimpses.

On entering the house through a huge rough sawn timber door the visitor is lead along a broad sweeping curved corridor down which the main living space, the internal and external living areas and the stunning views beyond slowly become apparent.

Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg
Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg

The utter and apparently almost structureless, transparency of the living area is offset by the timber clad density of the bedroom block the two sections being held together by the black screen wall running north south on the east side of the house.

Bedrooms generally have corner locations with micro views within the property but the main living space with terraces both to the north and south has long views to the north and west.

Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg
Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg

Rebuilding rather than extending allowed the whole house to be designed in a more sustainable level than the existing property. The building is heated using a ground source heat pump running off a series of 40m bore holes.

The heat pump also provides the hot water and heating to the swimming pool and in summer provides cooling to the floors: - replenishing the borehole in the process.

Sea Glass House
© Morley Von Sternberg
Sea Glass House
Floor Plan

Rainwater is harvested for flushing WCs and for external taps. Solar heating for hot water was considered but rejected as there were operational problems on a property which in only used intermittently. Similarly a wind turbine was rejected for a number of reasons, including planning, wind profile, and pay back time.

The main bedroom block and all external walls are constructed using 280mm thick lightweight clay honeycombe ‘Zeigler’ blocks giving very high levels of insulation whilst the glazed pavilion has deep overhangs ensuring that solar gain is used to best advantage during winter months but avoided during the summer. The dark living room floor also absorbs solar gain reducing the load in the underfloor heating.

Sea Glass House
Site Plan

The Manser Practice
T +44 20 87414381
The Manser Practice
Bridge Studios, Hammersmith Bridge Rd, London W6 9DA, United Kingdom