Turbosnail | Turboslug Home Page

turbosnail | turboslug
the creative experience partnership

Modernist self-build - Original building

Where to start, refurb, renovate or rebuild?

The house had stayed with the same owners since in was built in 1961 and no real maintentence or improvement work had been carried out since the 1980's.

Locally, it was considered unattractive and was in a rundown condition with significant refurbishement required - problems included a leaking roof, rubber electrical wiring, a single pipe heating system, and single glazed windows in places. It was also poorly insulated with no thermal efficiency.

Originally the house was smaller, but a later side extension took away the visual asymmetry which was more interesting in terms of it's overall design.

However, the building had obvious links to Modernism in terms of the design characteristics, and could already be considered to be a 'Modern Movement' house in terms of design. We knew that we didn't want to demolish the house completely and start again, so we started working on design ideas that used the existing form and footprint of the structure.