CONTACTS/ SUPPLIERS
FLOORING, PLUMBING, PLASTERING, ELECTRICS, UNDERFLOOR HEATING SYSTEM, WINDOWS, DOORS, ROOF AND
BUILDING MATERIALS Baufritz
www.baufritz.com
KITCHEN CABINETRY
SieMatic
www.siematic.com
APPLIANCES Gaggenau
www.gaggenau.com
BOILING WATER TAP
Quooker
www.quooker.co.uk
BATHTUB AND WASHBASINS
Duravit
www.duravit.co.uk
TAPS AND SHOWER FITTINGS
Axor
www.axordesign.com/int/
you want to do.” Problems around the configuration of the main
bathroom were solved in a designated empty room at the centre that is specially created to iron out design issues. “They have moveable walls, and they can build it to be roughly the space of your room. Then they have a bathtub and a toilet which you can move around to different positions, which helps you visualise it a bit more,” she says.
The build itself took 12 months to complete. A leak in the basement at the start of the process threatened to set them behind schedule, but after it had been resolved Baufritz picked up the pace to put them back on track. With Baufritz overseeing all the contractors, Astrid visited the site around twice a week to check in on progress. The finished, timber-constructed house is visually stunning, and broadly based over four terraced levels. Astrid says: “Now it’s finished, I like the fact that it’s built with wood and not with bricks – I think it’s not only much healthier for us, it’s much more sustainable.”
She sums the design up: “Imagine a shoe box, 20
www.sbhonline.co.uk
and cut out one corner and shift that by half a storey. It’s only four floors, but at every landing we have an actual room.” The garden at the back is sympathetically designed, with an emphasis on simplicity so the children can play in it freely and safely. A stand-out feature of the property is its
generous proportions, and in particular the expansive open-plan design at the heart of the ground floor. “It’s very large and the area is split not by walls, but with levels,” says Astrid. “For example the living room is a quarter level down from the kitchen, and then we have a kind of bar sitting room which is half a level down. Then it all revolves around a central open space.” Constructing this area was complex as the couple were keen to keep it free of pillars to maintain the sense of spatial flow, so they needed to incorporate extra steel beams. “We effectively have taken out all the pillars that you normally need for a wooden construction, but Baufritz didn’t stop us in any way – they just pointed out where we would need another steel frame. Getting rid of all the supporting pillars was definitely our biggest extravagance – that
nov/dec 2021
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