former management consultant Astrid Woloszczuk and her husband embarked on a search for their next home. “At first we looked for bigger houses, but none of them had what we wanted in terms of practical living space,” recalls Astrid. Having exhausted the possibilities of what was available on the market in their area, they started to think about building their own home, but again, they weren’t spotting any potential developers whose work they loved. But when the Baufritz name came up in their research, the more the couple learned about the company, the more they felt drawn to them. “I liked the concept that it’s a pre-build
W
prefabricated house but they don’t tell you what the design has to be – they are high quality, but also very flexible,” she explains. “I looked at others in some detail but I just couldn’t make
16
www.sbhonline.co.uk
hen living in an Edwardian townhouse in London with three young children started to feel “somewhat squeezed,”
them work – at the end of the day they were very prescriptive, down to the fact they even have their own kitchen provider. I liked the fact that Baufritz said you can come with any architect and do whatever you want, as long as you stick within certain measurements.” Having found a road near Richmond Park
where a lot of the existing houses had been demolished and redeveloped, they settled on a property on a plot that seemed to offer what they were looking for. By this point Astrid had compiled a scrapbook of design ideas, where she meticulously outlined all elements of how she wanted the house to look, from her vision for the outside, through to the facades, materials, and staircases, as well as the kitchen, living room and bathrooms. “We also did a word cloud of what we wanted from the house,” she reveals. “We had words like ‘playful, colourful, fun, luxurious, spacious, and clutter-free’. But we did not have words like ‘stately, grand, quiet,
LOW POINT
“Planning was by far the biggest challenge – we had appeals and complaints from the neighbours. It took six months to prepare for planning permission – and two years to get it.”
nov/dec 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
