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Architects: Glen Thomas Architecture
- Area: 340 m²
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:Richard Wood
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Manufacturers: Clear Living, Doca, Raynears
Text description provided by the architects. Glen Thomas Architecture's latest project, 'The Glasshouse', is a radically contemporary development of a stunning three-story Victorian house in a Welsh conservation area, for a couple and their two children.
Although the clients brief was to preserve much of the original elements of the property, their main desire was LIGHT. In a dark, damp old Victorian structure, this was a big task to undertake.
Working closely with the Structural Engineer, many of the load bearing walls were demolished, allowing for an open plan interior, whilst allowing a flood of natural light into the core of the house. The more recent addition of a double height flat roof extension was removed and replaced with a 9m long structural glass roof which had to be made in Germany and craned into position.
The rear ground floor walls were replaced with full height glass walls. The new, transparent skin of the structure welcomes views of the sky and the tree lined avenue adjacent to the property, which can now be seen from anywhere on the ground floor.
Throughout the house, full height sliding pocket doors emerge from open spaces, allowing for rooms to be secretly sub-divided, creating a flexible spatial environment for its inhabitants.
The new Anthracite aluminum clad, flat roof rear extension, formed a seamless internal continuation of the open plan Kitchen / Dining space, framing the garden. The hand made Eucalyptus wood and gray matt lacquer kitchen, the drop down cinema screen, the frameless glass steam-room and the integrated home audio and lighting systems, create a perfectly modern and detail engineered environment - a sympathetically designed, contemporary living space, within the fabric of a beautiful Victorian home.
