COVER STORY ZÜBLIN TIMBER
CREATING THE ULTIMATE HOUSE IN A GARDEN living room, the roof has a floating appearance that enhances the sense of light while connecting the interior of the house to the surrounding landscaped garden, as well as to its urban context. The bedrooms are immediately below ground level, with a generous living space gallery area together with a 10 metre swimming pool a level further below. Lightwells and skylights have been designed to optimise daylight, casting top light onto the walls of the lower ground floors. Using a palette of natural materials, this project goes beyond the realms of ‘self-build’, entering a new vernacular that could be described as a form of ‘installation art’ – a three-dimensional work that transforms the perception of living space. Reacting to the light like a tree, the pavilion type structure floats above the ground revealing distant views through gaps in the cityscape.
01 Finalist in the Structural Timber Awards for Residential Project of the Year – ‘House in a Garden’ – embraces detail, design and fabrication by ZÜBLIN Timber including a complex glulam roof structure.
6
w
The House in a Garden started out as a project on a plot of land that the architects themselves intended to develop. This involved the demolition of a 1960s bungalow and its replacement with a largely subterranean house. Once the lengthy planning process was completed, the architect sold the plot and their design to a private client who committed to making the House in a Garden into a home. Externally, the most visible component of the house is its pavilion like copperclad engineered timber roof. Inside, the roof comprises a complex glulam timber structure made from spruce – its double curvature concludes in a glazed oculus. Set above a glass-walled
STRUCTURALTIMBERMAGAZINE.CO.UK
Each individual and unique piece of the timber roof structure, designed and fabricated by ZÜBLIN Timber, is curved in three directions and was created from three-dimensional models provided by Gianni Botsford Architects. It was initially thought that the roof’s complex structure could be created digitally using CNC cutting techniques, but it was fabricated using traditional handcraft methods supported by advanced technology.
PROJECT PARTNERS CONSTRUCTION Architect: Gianni Botsford Architects Structural Engineer: Built Engineers
Contractor: New Wave (London) Ltd SPECIALIST SUB CONTRACTOR Glulam Roof Structure: ZÜBLIN Timber