INTERVIEW
Lawrence Grigg and Lydia Robinson take a quick break as they prepare for Channel 4’s Best Laid Plans
At Home With The Architect The last two years have proved an exciting time for Cotswold architect Lydia Robinson and project manager Lawrence Grigg. First was their renovation of two miners’ cottages, a project that garnered professional acclaim and a host of accolades, winning two Daily Telegraph Homebuilding & Renovating awards and two more regional awards from the Royal Institute of British Architects. Next was the momentous purchase of their ‘forever home’ – a farmhouse called Mabel, damp-riddled and of unstable character but much beloved. The highlight, however, was the suggestion by Channel 4 that they might take like to part in a new flagship programme airing this autumn. “It all began with Somerset and two
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COTSWOLD HOMES MAGAZINE
eighteenth century cottages that had been turned into one home in the 1950s. All that remained was a dilapidated jumbled warren of dark rooms with a series of ugly lean-tos. Turning it back into two required some time to get a change of use. The benefit was in being able to work on one property and live in the other - the sale of the first provided funds to finish the second, and to keep costs down Lawrence project managed the build, aided by local labour and hiring in subcontractors for more specialist tasks such as plastering,” explains Lydia, who designed the build. Why did the project win so much applause? “Peeling back the layers was key to our
approach,” says Lawrence. “We treated the building as if it were listed, researched the history and evaluated every layer to assess whether it was worth keeping. Good architecture must be empathetic but transformative. We retained much of what was hidden, including an original staircase, beams and a massive inglenook fireplace, but we replaced and resized PVCu windows with wooden frames and introduced a completely innovative design to the rear elevation. Single-height, clad in timber with bi-fold doors and roof-lights, two matching kitchen-diners now look out over the gardens towards the Pensford viaduct – very appropriate to the industrial age of the cottages!”