the landscape.


As you would expect in this setting, there is a lot of glazing in the home. The couple had to opt for double glazing, rather than the heavier triple-glazed windows, as the panes are so large. The frames are marine-coated aluminium, an essential factor when building within 500 metres of the sea. The stand-out feature is the open corner facing the sea, the blue vista of the bay unencumbered by a supporting post. When the sliding doors are pulled back into their pockets, the roof appears to hang in mid-air, framing the view.


INTERIORS The interiors are, of course, all Pippa and David’s work. They were inspired by the Tate Modern Gallery in terms of the space and the pared-back details. Internally, there are frameless doors, shadow gaps in place of skirting boards, no thresholds and an overall lack of detail to distract the eye from the ever-changing view. “It’s a living painting, and everything else is subservient to it,” says Pippa. “The colours inside are in dialogue with that view.” While the paint choices are largely white, a significant part of the interior finish is, of course, the choice of ooring. Achieving their vision of a salt-and-pepper grey granite that wasn’t overly shiny became a real challenge. “I did a massive amount of research,” recalls Pippa. Frustratingly however, the wrong colour concrete was poured without reference to her specification. erhaps fortunately, it quickly became apparent a problem had occurred with the pour and the concrete oor had to be dug out. Pippa seized the moment and appointed an


30 www.sbhonline.co.uk


The stone cladding does a remarkable job of settling the house into the landscape


independent contractor to lay the oors to her specification. The wide stairs, which carry visitors upwards from the grand, double-height entrance (also inspired by the Tate), are concrete, but they are an awkward shape to polish, so the steps were micro-topped with careful colour-matching of pigments. (Micro-topping is a polymer- enhanced cement that can be laid in an ultra- thin layer on a variety of surfaces.) Downstairs there are two bedrooms and a convertible middle room which functions as an open plan snug and reading room, but can be closed off to make a third bedroom. Pippa and David’s studios are at the rear, on the entrance level of the house. Throughout this level, the ooring is engineered timber, as this is better suited to underoor heating than solid wood. The heating and hot water are provided by an air-source heat pump, as “We have no gas supply in the village and the plot wasn’t big enough for a ground source heat pump,” says Pippa.


Upstairs, the kitchen, dining area and living


room are all one open-plan space. At one end of the room, the doors on the corner open out,


PIPPA’S ADVICE


• “If you are thinking of doing concrete ooring, do your research and get samples.”


• “The most important thing is finding people you can connect with. Communication is key.”


CONTACTS/ SUPPLIERS


BATHROOM:


CEMENT BATHROOM TILES The Mosaics Factory cement-tiles.com 020 1 0


CONCRETE (EFFECT) TILES Eurotiles & Bathrooms 010 


BATHROOM SUPPLIER Interiora www.interiora.co.uk 01 02100


GLAZING/WINDOWS ID Systems www.idsystems.co.uk 010 00


sep/oct 2023


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