LIVING IN A GRAND DESIGN MAKING A PERSONAL STATEMENT
Garry Thomas, Top 25 Grand Design Architect, gives us an insight into creating and living in a Grand Design.
In the very early days a Grand Design home depended more on the interior design; an island in your kitchen, a breakfast bar, a feature wall in your living room and, the wish-list luxury of an ensuite to the master bedroom with walk-in wardrobe. That all seems almost standard now doesn’t it.
Even just 20 years ago, simply building your own home was an ambitious undertaking and still is. Whether you are just developing something of larger than average urban proportions, with a dream kitchen, bedrooms like hotel suites and bathrooms with spa style accents, or your rural barn conversion open plan living dream with endless country views, anything that is outside of the mass developer’s norm is interesting and inspiring.
BUT ARE THEY REALLY ‘GRAND DESIGNS’? Well, Mr McCloud has certainly opened our eyes and fueled by Charlie Luxton, George Clarke et al, our Grand Design aspirations are now on epic proportions.
Grand Designs today are completely unique, with custom-made elements from rare or radical materials and features that make those properties not just homes, but works of art. Completely bespoke to the owner, they are literally designed to impress, to be selfishly indulgent, sometimes experimental and always a talking point.
My own home, still nearing completion, is certainly designed for me, how I like to live, my own experimentations, reception spaces where work and events can take place and a showcase for vision and inspiration to those wanting to explore an ultra-modern looking abode.
It is a celebration of the work of Mies van der Rohe and minimalism. It uses the Golden Section (a ratio of 1:1.61 found over again in nature) as a universal proportion system of measurement and a 600mm square grid to lay out a minimalist house that follows the grid structure.
Simply called ‘The Glass Box’ on my address, it is single storey with full height glass panels running around three quarters of the property to bring in the spectacular vista. And what a view it is, across grazing meadows right down to the River Wye. Even though I live in a village where generations of my family have, the property is designed to be unobtrusive against its rural backdrop with the cottage or traditional style dwellings of the neighbours and I worked hard to secure the planning permissions.
THE SUPER STRUCTURE The steel frame is made up of rolled steel beams and universal sections that are bolted and welded together. The stand-out feature will be that the frame has no visible joints so that the junctions between elements are purely connected without welds or bolts of visible plates. It’s as if the materials just touch together.
Pic 2 45
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
HOME S & INTERIORS GARRY THOMAS
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 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
