HOMEBUILDING MAGAZINE

EXTENSIONS | SELF-BUILDS | RENOVATIONS | CONVERSIONS

Homebuilding & Renovating Building a 21st Century Home

Britain’s Best – Selling Self – build Magazine

Self-builds, Extensions and Remodels Contemporary Design Masterclass Common Mistakes to Avoid

ARCHITECTS’ SECRET TIPS REVEALED Top Words of Wisdom for Project Success

“Our Modern Miracle” A Low-Energy Self-build in the City

PASSIVHAUS SELF-BUILD GUIDE PACKAGE SUPPLIERS The Complete Guide to Choosing the Best

BUILD COST GUIDE

Light Life UP YOUR

with ORIGIN

Bi-fold Doors

Windows

Blinds

What a difference Origin makes.

The weather’s perfect, the table’s set, so simply open up your origin Bi-fold Doors and eat out.

Custom-made and precisioniengineered, they glide open with minimum effort, let in more light and open up your living space like never before.

They look briliant a logn side Origin’s bespoke electic blinds and aluminium windows too, with a huge choice of colours and finishes across the entire range to create the perfect matching look.

It’s ture – in an Origin home, almost anything posible.

RIGIN

ROOMS MADE FOR YOU

LIFESTYLE WALL

Lifestyle Wall makes light work of hanging heavy items.

Lifestyle Wall Is raising the standard in more ways than one.

Part of the Rooms Made Four You range. Lifestyle Wall’s unique high sthrength enables you to hang items simply by screwing directly into the surface of the wall. It’s capable of supporting as much as 15 kg off a single screw, which makes it ideal for fixing larger, heavier object such as mirrors, paintings, curtain poles and even flat screen TVs. With its superior performance and durability. Lifestyle Wall is also exceptionally resisteant to everyday knocks and delivers better sound performance than standard pasterboard, reducing noise breakthrough between rooms.

Homebuilding & Renovating HOME

Projects, advice and inspiration for your home

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A Contemporary-Style Self-build

With the help of their architect son, one couple have self-built an accessible home with sea views

Charlie Luxton’s Modern House Masterclass An expert guide to 21st-century design

A Radical Remodel

A bungalow completely transformed on a budget

Outstanding Contemporary Homes

Our pick of the best modern projects in the UK Modern Stone Walling

How to use this old material in contemporary schemes

Quick Ideas For Every Room Nuggets of expert design advice

An Energy-E.cient City Build

One architect builds a contemporary eco home on a hillside plot in a Bristol Conservation Area

Design Solutions for Landings

Making the most of this often overlooked space

Before & After Design

A 1930s red-brick bungalow receives a facelift

Designer’s View: A Modern Chalet

A dated bungalow becomes an open plan home

72 74 75 77 80 81

Five-Minute Expert: Ovens

What you need to know before buying

A Light-Filled Flat Extension

One couple transform a dark basement flat — more than doubling its value in the process

10 Modern Home Design Essentials Our best design tips to consider

Self-build Live: Building a Passivhaus

We follow package company Potton as they start work on their brand new Passivhaus project

My Big Idea: Sunken Courtyards How to achieve this design detail

How to Choose a Package Supplier

The complete guide to choosing the best company for your turnkey self-build project

BUILDING & RENOVATING Practical advice to help get your project underway

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The Cost of Tiling a Roof

Our expert explains the costs of different roof coverings

The Art of Repointing

We explain how to do it and which mortar to use

Getting the Best From Your Architect

Want to know what could make or break your project?

Energy Labelling Hits Heating Systems

EU legislation will soon see heating products labelled for efciency — we explain the impact\

A Step-by-Step Guide to Extensions Our complete project schedule

Devising Energy Strategies

Our eco expert explains the most cost-efective way of improving your home’s

WELCOME OCTOBER 2015

The Modern Home Gets Cosy

I

Jason Orme is the Editor of Homebuilding & Renovating

hear it time and time again as the main reaction from ‘normal’ people (as in, people who are not architects) to contemporary homes. “Too clinical.

Not cosy enough. Cold. Harsh.

Terrible for kids.” That is all true to an extent — and our Modern Home Design issue heralds the fact that the 2015 home has taken a major leap forward in addressing these concerns. Architects at the cutting edge are now using natural, organic and local materials to create a softer feel to the modern lines, and the rise of ‘contextualism’ means that the one-size-fi ts-all modern white box is being usurped by individual, reactive homes, designed to refl ect and live in their unique settings.

What all this means for those of us who are building or renovating homes in a modern style is that they will be easier

to live with, require less maintenance and likely to be more acceptable to planners.

This issue shows you how to create this 2015 look in your new home with plenty of expert guides, including Charlie Luxton’s modern home masterclass (p.34), and dozens of great design ideas. Elsewhere, we asked some of the UK’s leading architects to come up with the things they wished their clients had known before they started (p.150); a comprehensive guide to choosing a package supplier (p.128); and a smart guide to repointing your old brickwork (p.147).

I hope you enjoy the issue.

Jason Orme is currently rebuilding a 1960s house (described as ‘Frank Lloyd Wrong’ by HB&R’s Contributing Editor Mark Brinkley)

Homebuilding | 7

DESIGN DIGEST

The latest house design ideas and news from around the world

Mediterranean Masterpiece

S

itting high above the Mediterranean sea, this striking home from architect Ramรณn Esteve is the ultimate in contemporary European architecture.

T he entrance faรงade is protected by an automated system of adjustable shutters made of whitened

Accoya wood; the shutters protect this elevation from the sun and, at the same time, limit views from the street. In contrast, the east faรงade to the rear is much more permeable and transparent, with the concrete vertical surfaces sealed with large glass panes.

The glazing is protected by cantilevers, which in turn create verandas enclosing the outdoor terrace below. Inside, twisting internal curtains add an ethereal atmosphere.

On the upper level, glazed corners o.er interesting panoramic views and each room has a small glass balcony.

The outdoor space has been designed as an extension of the interiors with the use of local stone and white concrete, with all views directing out towards the infinity pool which appears to merge into the sea beyond.

Homebuilding | 8