Sophisticated, elegant simplicity
Mike Keys and Anne Claxton for private client
Contract value: Confidential
GIA: 220m²
Hill House is in a conservation area on the northern slopes of Bath. The three-bedroom house, a family home for the architects, replaces a 1960s bungalow on a 0.1 acre site opposite a Georgian terrace.
The street frontage is characterised by a long Bath stone wall with a retained outbuilding. This boundary is continued by a hedge with the solid north facing facade of the house behind it, its height matching the historic wall. By contrast the south elevation is largely glazed, with habitable rooms open onto the garden wrapping around the house.
Two parallel linear wings step effortlessly in plan to create separation between two bedrooms at one end and open plan living areas and the master bedroom at the other. At the centre of the plan is the west facing entrance that leads directly into the living areas.
The interior is lent warmth by the generous use of tulip wood as storage walls. In this location aesthetics has been the main driver over and above certain technological gains.
The judges admired the sophisticated, elegant simplicity of the plan and the subtle massing of a large family house within a conservation area and World Heritage Site. Modernism of this quality is rare within the centre of Bath and should be encouraged.
See the other winners of the RIBA Regional Awards 2017 - South West & Wessex