Aquaterra Calder - 8 Delph Land Project
At its core, Oblique House is a 1970s bungalow that has been pulled kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Shedding its reputation for blandness, this place where one might have visited Granny for a nice cup of tea is now the epitome of cool with its unapologetic use of contemporary Architectural design.
Wickstead Developments Limited were the chosen company, under the leadership of Stephen Lavin Director of Architecture to turn this detached bungalow into something exceptional.
The architectural concept was for a relatively simple form, a rectangular floor plan and a dual-pitched roof, enhanced with the subtle use of light and shade and unexpected breaks of the conventional norms. From this came the project name, Oblique House.
It was decided early in the design process that the house would have a standing seam aluminium roof and aluminium would then be utilised as a secondary material elsewhere in the elevations. The answer to, what should the primary material be, was never in question. Clay bricks provide warmth and texture, complementing the aluminium's cold flatness. A desire to accentuate the bungalow’s low linear form drove the search for a linear brick. The subtle angles of the reveals of openings needed to be clearly expressed and could not be lost in the tones of a brick blend, which focused the quest for the perfect brick on the consistency of colour and tone. Finally, the design required a contrast, to the dark grey of the aluminium and the bright white of a rendered element.
The selected brick was the Linea Aquaterra Caldera from Crest, this is a long-format brick which creates stylish and elegant lines with dramatic and elongated effects which accentuate the linearity of the façade.
At 365 x 90 x 40mm, not only did it tick all the boxes it coursed with metric block work. Bespoke oblique angles were produced for the various chamfered reveals. The 40mm depth provided the right balance for narrow coursing and mechanical fixing of the soffit bricks. This facilitated the construction of a brick-cloaked beam.
This architectural feature provides more than a whimsical flourish. It rationalises the front elevation that is otherwise broken by the projection of the porch and the garage, ensuring it ties these two elements together as a single entity through the use of negative space. It is a wonderfully counterintuitive, seemingly effortless object that could only have been achieved with brick.
The rear elevation similarly benefits from the main architectural qualities of brick, consisting primarily of a continuous monolithic wall. The brick provides a weight and solidity that makes sense of the deep chamfered reveals. It is in these reveals that the architecture exists with the subtle play of the chamfered shadows and the contrasting qualities of the aluminium soffits and feature panels, balanced by the bronze-coated aluminium window frames that accentuate the warm cream tones of the Linea Aquaterra Caldera.
Oblique House is not flamboyant or ostentatious, it is solid, yet elegant, surprising yet ordered, it is modern yet homely and it is no coincidence that all of this is achieved through the use of a material that has all of these attributes and more the timeless clay brick.
Crest is delighted to supply Linea long-format bricks for this stunning renovation project. Marketing Manager Neil Mace said: “Our fantastic range of Linea long format bricks is becoming ever more popular with architects and developers; our stunning collection is now available in a variety of colours and finishes and brings a stylish and elegant effect which accentuates the linearity of the facade.
These beautiful long-format bricks are just one example of the kind of ‘special architectural design’ bricks we supply. If you require something a little different we can provide the ideas and the solution”