FROM VICTORIAN TO MODERNISM
In April 1998, we moved from a sizable 4 bedroom Victorian house (where two sizable rooms could be used for storing books and framed art works), located in a noisy neighborhood, to the small but remarkable 'Experimental House', set in the quiet and leafy Coundon Wedge, in Allesley Village.
Conscious that the house would be too small to accommodate our possessions (antique and design furnitures, books and an art collection), we took the risk; seduced by the quality of space: its openness and transparency, and the profusion of light that its large glass panels allowed in, below a continuous line of clerestory windows.
Like the first owner of the house, a few years after he moved in (c. 1965), and like all subsequent owners of the three other bungalows built alongside it (on the same plan), we, too, modified the design to suit our needs; thus contributing to the organic growth of the the house.
Unlike purists who believe that a building should stop growing and evolving once built, we believe that the user is entitled to customize the space s/he lives in, provided that it does not violate the integrity of the original design.
A responsibility ensues when setting out to help a building evolve; a responsibility we accepted.
When a house ceases to fulfill its function due to a design fault or oversight, it is permissible and desirable that an intervention should be made to solve the problem. In such situation it may be argued that the original design is improved or enhanced.
In all cases, however, such design interventions must be done with sensitivity and with a sense of appropriateness, to preserve the architectural integrity of the building.This presupposes a modicum of sensibility and aesthetic sense, and respect for the neighbors.
[I.M. Pei's seemingly iconoclastic, but, in effect, masterly glass pyramid in the 'Carré du Louvres' represents for me how an imaginative intervention can, in fact, reinterpret the classical tradition by combining a platonic solid with modern material.Pei's creation for Le Louvres was probably dreamed up by Etienne-Louis Boullée over two centuries ago.]
FIRST MODIFICATIONS
The first owner asked architect Roy Gedden to turn the car port into a garage, and to connect the garage with the dining room.
This was done very simply by rotating by 90º the timber and glass front of the dining room to enclose the space reclaimed the patio and incorporated it into the main body of the house.
This simple intervention added valuable space (for use in all seasons and weathers!) to a building that was immediately experienced as too small.
On the back they added a conservatory to enable them to grow a vine.
A subsequent owner used it as a gym.
By turning the car port into a garage and connecting it to the main body of the house the first owner cut the light at nº5, for the erected a brick wall behind the glass scree.
At the back, they wanted to build an extension alongside the partition fence with nº5, but planning permission for this and for the other work was not granted.
OUR INTERNAL MODIFICATION OF THE ROOM LAY-OUT
Our own modification to the original design was lighter, and only affected the redistribution of internal space, at the back; but its effect was considerable; for it created a much greater sense of space without adding an inch to the overall surface.
After changing the orientation of the house by 180 degrees, we turned the two modest size bedrooms at the back of the house into a open living space:
This simple removal of a partition wall and change in the function of the rooms expanded the space beyond its actual size; turning two relatively modest cells into an 'open' multi-functional living space of generous proportions, which, via the sun lounge, visually and physically connected the house with the garden.
As the aging sun lounge, initially built to grow a vine, and used by a subsequent owner as a gym, was in poor state, we commissioned architects Baynes and Cº to redesign and extend it slightly, in sympathy with the design of the house.
Designed sensitively, but acknowledging its status as an addition, the new sun lounge provides additional Summer living quarters and, visually, an in-between space between living areas and the garden.
The transparence of the house and the fluidity of the space become evident as soon as we open the front door and catch a glimpse of the garden through the hall, passage, kitchen, living room and sun lounge; modern echo of Vermeer's 'enfilades' of rooms.
Complementing this vista, the large glass panels reflect the garden and the houses facing it:
Looking out of the studio, with the blinds up, the division inside-outside is visually abolished.
The garden comes inside the house. The option of sliding the left of two large glass panels, gives us a sense of being both inside and outside:
The large glass screen diffuses light and give us some privacy.
Letting the Venitian blinds down also gives a sense of added privacy during the day:
But it is not essential, for when the blinds up, during the day, the reflection of the garden and the houses across act as an effective immaterial screen:
LIGHT
For me the house is 'a house of light…'
The large glass panels that occupy most of the front and back walls, are doubled by rows of clerestory windows that enable more light to fall in from just under the ceiling.
In the central part of the house, which is higher, clerestory windows (the only source of natural light) set on raised walls let a profusion of light in rooms (kitchen, bathroom, study) that would, otherwise, be windowless.
The height also create a sense of space in what is, in effect, a 'small house'.
Anna activated one wall of the central hub with orange:
A press photograph of the show house shows that this wall was originally papered with a geometric design.
Elsewhere in the house, white walls enable pictures and art works to be shown to advantage.
However the dynamic play of vertical and horizontal lines contribute an aesthetic dimension that we are aware should not be lost, for it is an essential aspect and visual asset of the design.
As an artist and a collector, living here has involved displaying art works without cluttering the space. The result is a compromise that is constantly re-negotiated.
DESIGNED SPACE VS EXPERIENCED/LIVED IN SPACE
The image below does not try to represent physical, architectural space (space that can be measured), but experiential space: the space 'I live in'.
The photograph captures for me what Virginia Wolf called a 'moment/s of being'.
Taken at 5 am in the morning, the space is transformed by the play of natural and artificial light into glass surfaces.
The visual echo of images creates a virtual 3D space: a poetic setting for both objects and space (inside and outside), and for their appreciation.
The long custom-built storage unit for clothes harmonizes with an antique and a modern chest.
The long glass panel alongside the bed enables us to bring the garden in by a simple opening of the venetian blinds:
STORAGE
The big problem for me — as an artist and as a curator-collector — is to find suitable ways of storing works, as well as books, without cluttering the space.
For books, virtually every room — except for the bathroom — has bookcases. This avoid the wall of books effect; except for the library, where custom-made bookcases rise to just below the clerestory windows: to take advantage of the double-height space.
This room situated in the middle of the house, like a 'studiolo', houses books and ceramics and, sometimes, small sculptures:
THEATRE OF OBJECTS
This set up gives me an opportunity to study ceramics as their interact with eachother — as if in conversations — as an alternative to showcasing them individually, museum-style, in a state of sublime isolation.
STORAGE
Two garages provide much needed storage space; allowing us, at the same time, to park our car (and our bicycles) in one of them; rather than to leave it in front of the house as everyone else seems to do.
DISPLAYING ART
The walls and the top of a low book case offer limited space for rotating exhibitions; mostlty works that I collected as part of curatorial projects or bought at exhibitions.
The large blue and black canvas is a permanent feature (too large to store). It is by a young South Indian artist Sanil Anthony, whose work I selected for the Through Other Eyes: Contemporary Art from South Asia exhibition commissioned by the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry.
A white display unit in the studio-study enables me to set up temporary displays of ceramics. The displays tend to include works included in the exhibition Keramik Conversations that I curated for the International Ceramic Festival at Aberystwyth in 2014; popular ceramics from Vallauris and Germany dating from the 1950s, 60s and 70s; the period when ceramics took MODERNITY into everyone; when lava-type glazes relayed some of the aesthetic values explored by Tachisme, Abstract Expressionism, and Lyrical Abstraction in painting:
From the house I run a pop up art gallery that specializes in fine art prints.
The most recent exhibition was of a set of collograph prints of Henry Moore drawings published in 1946, by his American dealer Curt Valentin, on the occasion of Moore's first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
(Catalogue available on request).
A follow-up exhibition of Henry Moore prints, on the theme From Drawing to Sculpture took place in December 2014.
(few works available):
Gérard Mermoz
gerardmermoz@hotmail.com
07817289451
024 76 405 772
