House For A Violinist
HOUSE FOR A VIOLINIST
LOCATION
Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom
TYPE
Residential › Private House
A design that starts with music and takes form through the desire to create a space of gathering and performance arranged vertically.
This is a home for a violinist, a home that stretches across three weavers’ cottages, all listed grade II as part of a cliff face terrace with stunning views across the town and the Wiltshire landscape beyond.
Many years ago, one of the cottages burnt down, leaving a gap in the terrace.
The remaining two cottages sub-divided unsatisfactory.
Our design re-inserts the missing tooth in the terrace, set back behind the one part of the elevation that survived the fire, creating an elevated, yet secluded look out.
This new volume, of local ashlar stone and riveted slate, heals and gathers;it brings the house back into a single space.
Into this new space a suspended raw steel stair is carefully placed over a polished concrete floor to link the staggered levels of the house.
Into this new space a suspended raw steel stair is carefully placed over a polished concrete floor to link the staggered levels of the house.
The stair rises against the backdrop of a black painted rear wall, a simple homage to the house that once was but burnt down.
Into this wall warm birch plywood boxes are inserted to provide space for exhibition.
This is a contemporary insertion and a careful retrofit to a listed building.
The new is generous in volume and remarkably different against the low ceilings of the older cottages – the new provides height and space for music to be performed and enjoyed without forgetting the historic setting from which it has emerged.
