White House

white house
hertfordshire
private client
£1.35m

A single family house set in a mature garden in a suburban conservation area in a London commuter town.
The client replaced their existing Edwardian house where they had raised there family for 20 years with a contemporary home more suited to their changed circumstances.

'This house is really a blank canvas and this is true both of the interior and exterior, where shadows cast by trees and the louvres play on the white walls. Actually the building itself is also a work of art: the expanses of plain white wall becoming a canvas for the shadows thrown by the trees. Blank canvas and work of art the house is entirely appropriate for an art lover. The planners described the house as “a distinguished and distinctive addition to the architectural heritage of the area...expressing the best of modern design”. It’s hard to disagree...
Several pieces of art were commissioned specially for the house and garden....The project architect Paul Jenkins designed a beautiful mobile consisting of rectangles of yellow dichroic glass which are suspended in the double height space of the dining room.'

Katherine Bateson   Building Design 28 March 2003

other reviews

'space obyssey'  Bethan Ryder : Observer magazine 27 04 03

'stare case'  Eleanor Young : ribajournal January 2003

photography :   Helene Binet

*as senior project architect at FBM