News

Today,

a JCB came big

and blundering into our home

and tore the

roof like paper

[wpvideo bu2cIAT2]

McMillan demolition

The moment of truth is approaching: tomorrow we will knock down the large concrete shed on our site and find out the real size of our site. People keep telling us that it will seem massive once it is just flattened ground, but of course we keep remembering that we will then be building a house on it, so it won’t stay that way.

Bee steam roller

McMillan steam roller

Arthur's shed

Helping Arthur clear out his shed on Saturday felt like an important moment for us all: lots of memories for him, and being on the verge of something new for us. When the building was finally empty, it had a certain poignance, marks and traces of the things that had happened there were all that was left. And a summerhouse full of salvaged pieces: the ATHarris sign will take pride of place at the top of the ramp: a space that we can only imagine just now.

summerhouse

empty shed

empty shed

Traces

Bee

Why would you choose to build your own house? As architects there is always a desire to create the spaces that you dream of, but this isn’t necessarily enough to give the impetus to actually start such a demanding project.

Greta

But what if most places you went to worked against you moving easily around it, every entrance was an obstacle to getting into the building, and every space had been designed with a mobile, upright person in mind?

Castelvecchio Verona - Bee

For our seven year old daughter, Greta, this is a daily occurrence: she cannot yet walk on her own, so she has a collection of wheeled buggies and a bicycle. As architects, we spend a lot of time visiting buildings, and as a child in a family of architects she and her sister have learnt to love exploring different spaces and places with us. And there are many that she loves being in. But many of them seem to have been designed specifically to hinder anyone who is not conventionally mobile. There are so many missed opportunities in our architectural spaces and places.

Gormley City Greta

Gormley City Bee

So when we realised that Greta would need to live in a very supportive environment, we knew that was something that we could offer her. And it has been very exciting realising that an inclusive, barrier-free house is not just about being able to get from one floor to the other, or from the kitchen to the bedroom; when you consider movement around a house in a whole new way, it also offers a richness of experience of spaces that is beneficial to everyone.

Rem slope Bee

The diggers are here and there’s a great big hole in front of our site. It may not be work on our ground, but its the first sign of ground being shifted and clearly something is going to happen here. And once the power and water are in the ground, we will be able to demolish the building which currently takes up 1/3rd of the site. Then we will have a blank canvas, or as blank as earth, sand and concrete, can be.

services inspection by the two site managers

Yesterday a two year old friend who I had recently given a toy digger to, watched mesmerised as I showed him the film of the real diggers on my iphone: hopefully he will come and visit the site soon and see the real thing. Bee and Greta visited the site, and Bee’s immediate reaction was to jump into the trench: I’m not sure what Itec’s health and safety officer would say about that, they seem slightly bemused by the sporadic waves of family and friends visiting. But I liked Bee’s instinctive reaction to be a part of the project.

first hole in the ground

Itec are the company charged with taking out the earth, putting in pipes and ducts, then putting all the earth back in, and they are great; they know exactly what they are doing, and don’t mind taking the time to explain it all to me. For example the difference between 63mm water pipe, and 63mm MDPE barrier pipe (its the red stripe along the blue pipe). My learning curve as an architect is going to be a steep one this next year.

Bellfield Lane