The interior plays visual games with its landscape
Loyn & Co Architects for a private client
Contract value: £900,000
GIA: 467m2
RSAW Building of the Year
Approaching the private house through late 20th century suburban Cardiff, you’d be forgiven for thinking it is a reticent exercise in good manners. But above the brick perimeter wall and alongside a heavy pitched roof (planners wanted a single storey look) sit two ‘floating’ elements – a study and playroom. This is something different.
Loyn & Co has made its name in high-end housing and this one is a real tour-de-force. The mix of brick and timber, the walls merging into landscape and the over-riding horizontality reminds you of Peter Aldington at his height. But this is no exercise in romantic plagiarism. This house is a rich and unique solution, made even richer by its very high plan efficiency; the visual games the interior plays with its landscape, and its passive low energy principles. The client is clearly delighted and it’s not hard to see why. They set a high ambition, asking that the new dwelling should ‘make you want to get up in the morning’; make you ‘feel alive’ and ‘help the family interact’. The final result has undoubtedly met those criteria.