Eashing House on site progress and Metal Sample Panel

On Monday I travelled to leafy Godalming to see the progress of our project Eashing House. http://www.edgleydesign.co.uk/Projects/Residential/Eashing-House.aspx

Recently published in the AJ, we are upcycling a 1960s country house wrapping the existing building in high performance insulation and shiny stainless steel. There is a large extension, all the glazing is being replaced by triple glazed sliding windows and doors, and the interiors are all being completely refurbished.

It has been on site since August and the Contractors are making great progress. On Monday we recieved approval for the facing materials, with the help of the below sample panel. We chose the material, together with the Clients, as it reflected the beautiful Surrey countryside, acting as an invisibility cloak for the building.

The specific finish has never been used as a cladding material before as far as we know. Architect's tend to either go for the perfect mirror finish, or the extremely matte non-reflective.

This metal acts like a lens - go close up and the reflections are perfect almost like a mirror. As you move further away, the image begins to blur, moving out of focus. Continuing to move away from the metal, the distortions of the metal abstract the image even further, until you are left with a watercolour like image of the surrounding landscape, the variety of colour, shapes, light, and shade.

We look forward to seeing the project develop further into the winter months.

Rising Action/Falling Action

 

 As part of the Bloomsbury Festival, I was invited by the curators of SSE Space to create an installation interpreting a portion of the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus along with around 20 other teams of artists, architects and designers. Working together with Ifigeneia Liangi and Amelia Leeson, I created an inflated pair of wing-like forms, anchored to a timber framework which formed a doorway to an unoccupied shop on Store Street.

The project was a great opportunity to test out a new building technology. Much was learned about the manufacture and fragility of inflatable structures, which we'll certainly be putting to good use in the future. The day itself saw lots of amazing temporary structures, interactive games and performances in the street. For more information on the project, see SSE Space.

Mirror Mirror In The Park, Reflector Of Day And Dark

With Eashing House on-site, Edgley Design needed to decide on material finishes. The most noticable concern is the finish of the stainless steel cladding. Happy with the aesthetic of our drawing, our aim was to find the right level of polished material to reflect the colours and create a distorted vision of the surrounding park as close as possible.

 

Team Edgley took our samples down to the local park to discover the effects of light and the park environment on various grades of polished stainless steel, as this was the best way to test the material against its inevitable context in the Surrey countryside.

We had expected from looking at the drawing to opt for a more rough finish, that the highly polished material would be too much like a mirror and too bright. 

The users experience of the material at different distances (1m, 3m, 5m, 10m)  different distances.