Grange Park / Bishops Stortford

The Glass House. Extended House and Period Renovation.

The original four bedroom detached house was designed by architect Alan McCulloch (1954) who was working with Frederick Gibberd on Harlow New Town at the time. The house shows a number of typical details used on new domestic architecture in the 1950's Britain.

Prior to the commission the property was untouched from its original condition. In addition to the new build extension the original house required sympathetic restoration retaining the character and materials where possible and assimilating these into the new plan. The entire rear ground floor wall of the house was removed to accept a new steel frame single storey structure that enlarged the living spaces and provided a new bedroom dressing and bathing area. Removal of the wall created a large open plan living space with a 15 metre long full height glazed curtain wall in part sliding to give seamless access to the terrace and garden.

In contrast to the glazed living area, the cedar-clad ground floor bedroom is concealed from the main living space and raised above the garden as a cantilevered cube.

The brief called for interior space divisions designed to be adaptive and give flexible configurations suitable for the occupant’s growing and changing family. A positive integration with the 1950s building was achieved by maintaining a single floor level and extending the flooring material throughout the ground floor.

The Glass House refers to architectural references from the ‘Case study” experimental houses of the 1950/60s mainly in the Los Angeles area. The program was intended to provide inexpensive and efficient model buildings to satisfy the growing residential boom following WWII.