We are talking about one of the first projects of Richard Rogers, whose clients were his own parents and for who he designed this house which he describes as a transparent tube with solid boundary walls.
For own Richard Rogers it is the "the most successful small project I have been involved in".
Memory of project.
The house, commissioned by Richard Rogers’ parents, sits within a long and narrow wooded urban plot, opposite Wimbledon Common in South West London and adjoining a major road. It is designed to provide maximum privacy and seclusion, and consists of two separate elements facing on to an internal garden courtyard. The small unit houses the separate flat and pottery studio and acts as a sound barrier between the house and the road. Rogers describes the house as ‘a transparent tube with solid boundary walls.’
Backyard. Photograph © Tim Crocker. Courtesy of The Modern House.
The steel structure is brought inside the skin to eliminate maintenance and to simplify junctions between structure and skin. Eight welded clear-span rigid portals fabricated in standard steel sections permit maximum demountability and the re-use of the enclosing envelope and internal partitions. Walls are composite panels of plastic-coated aluminium inner skins with foam plastic core and neoprene jointing system.
Flexibility was a high priority and most internal partitions are moveable. Maximum sized, double- glazed, sealed units in painted steel frames have been used and glazed roofs, neoprene zipped and solar reflecting, enclose the bathrooms.
The house represented British Architecture at the 1967 Paris Biennale.
Text.- Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.
CREDITS.-
Architects.- Richard + Su Rogers.
Team.- Pierre Botschi, John Doggart, Ingrid Morris, Richard Russell and John Young.
Collaborators.- Landscape Design Partnership (landscape architect), GA Hanscomb Partnership (quantity surveyor), H Bressloff Associates (services engineer) and Anthony Hunt Associates (structural engineer).
Location.- London, England.
Date.- 1968-1969.
Client.- Dr and Mrs Rogers.
