A HOUSE FOR ESSEX - Design Review
On first glance A House for Essex seems bizarre if not a figment of a child’s imagination. A House for Essex is a home that was the product of a unique collaboration of between art and architecture. This home is a gleaming example of a forward movement in the redefinition of home design. Furthermore this building stands as an example of how architecture and interior design can be so much more than just functional structures but its own expression of a narrative.
A House for Essex was created by the director of Fashion Architecture Taste, Charles Holland. Fashion Architecture Taste which has now dissembled, but its statement to the architecture and interior design community lives on. This company has been described as “ultra-controversial”. Charles Holland’s partner in crime for A House for Essex was Grayson Perry. Grayson Perry is an English artist known for his amazing ability to juxtapose traditional Greek pottery with modern colors and concepts.
A House for Essex was commissioned by Living Architecture. Living Architecture is a concept created by writer-philosopher Alain de Botton. Alain de Botton’s notion with Living Architecture was to cultivate a collection of six homes that were designed by the leading modern architects of the United Kingdom. These homes are all created on a non-profit basis to be vacation properties. The base idea behind creating these vacation homes is to allow people to experience modern design through the act of inhabiting the space.
Thus this is the original concept to A House for Essex. The sight location is overlooking a river on the English moors near the small village of Wrabness. They decided to have the legendary fictional tale of a common woman of Essex be their inspiration. That personification is the fictions woman, Julie May Cope. One can see the story of Julie as a glorified tale of common life encompassing love, marriage, divorce, parenthood and of course death. The home is designed to be a temple to Julie May Cope from her second husband. Grayson and Charles see the story of Julie May Cope similar to a religious chronicle and thus see the home similar to a cathedral or temple. Grayson and Charles also wanted this home to represent a rejection of the overabundance of minimalism.
The exterior could be described as an ornate terracotta covered temple. The roof is golden bronzed material that is a progression of 5 separate tiers topped with a variation of large sculptures. This structure feels quite temple like with its vertical progression and rounded protruding dormers. The rest of the home is covered in green and white pattern tiles with iconography elements that range from goddess like figures, safety pins, wheels, and of course the name Julie. Red doors and window frames combined with the green tiles and golden roof from a split complementary color scheme that make this 2,000 square foot home seem like it was taken from the pages of a storybook. The small amount of first story windows make A House for Essex feel very sealed off from the outside world and add to the effect of the notion that this is a scared place. What can be seen through a few of the windows are extremely large strategically placed murals of Julie May Cope’s life; as one peers into the home it is as if these murals peer back.
Upon entrance the passage way is small with a floor mosaic skull with the birth and death date of Julie, that quickly opens up to the large vaulted area of the living room. The living room is completely barren besides two long yellow couches that face each other from across the opposite sides of the room. The two side walls are composed of a pale purple panels that are mostly covered by large tapestries that articulate specific times in Julie’s life. The main focal point of the living room is a large golden statue of Julie in a pregnant state, it is elevated on the gleaming red wall that conceals the second story and positioned above the fire place.
There are two small indoor balconies that protrude from second story. Even though there is quite a bit of movement in this room through the use of diagonal lines, vertical lines and even curved lines, the area is nicely balance. The symmetrical balance is done by the repetition of shapes and elements that mirror each other. The vaulted ceiling has four massive dormers that allow a flood of natural light into the space and provoke the space to feel fantastically ceremonial. The rest of the space on the ceiling is covered in black and white block prints. The height of the ceiling is quite impressive but the depth of the room is quite short this forces a person to crane there neck back making the flow of the room quite vertical. The sense of scale in this area is very large and having mostly unused negative space in the vaulted area really articulates this, not to mention that the intensely saturated red wall continues to the joint of the fault. There is also an apparent sense of gradation through the use of hues in this living space from highly saturated hues to unstated tones that help to encourage the upward movement. Instead of having a chandelier there is a large Honda motor bike with working headlights. This bike was the demise of Julie and what caused her death but not the focal narrative of the room.
Under each balcony is a small entry hall to the kitchen/ dining area. After the grandness of the living area the kitchen/dining area seems quite normal. In fact in proportion of the kitchen to the dining is quite different. The scale of the kitchen is quite small this accented by the very low ceilings. The hues used in this area are still quite saturated, however are used in a much more minimalistic way just to add variety and accent throughout the space. After closing the doors that lead from the living area, one can see that the fire place is in the kitchen as well, but now becomes the focal point through the use of green glass tiles. Tiles not only surround the fireplace but, cover the entire wall and even the back side of the doors. Through the kitchen/dining area is the guest bathroom and the stairwell to the second floor. After passing each of these location one is able to exit out of a small outer hall.
The second story consistent of two bedrooms that are the same in size, however one is a master with one queen bed and the second consistent of two twin beds. The master bedroom is a representation of Julie’s wonderful, loving second marriage whereas the second bedroom is a representation of Julies failed marriage. An extremely large mural of Julie and her second husband dominants and entire wall which interestingly enough is the wall that the bed faces. To say that this mural is looming is not enough it is all consuming. The size of the mural really makes the bed feel quite small in proportion. Each room uses the extended space of the dormers to enhance the overall size of the area. The same large scale as the living room can be seen in the bedrooms because of the use of those vaulted ceilings. As for the balance of the bedrooms I would say they feel heavily asymmetrical because of the murals and their location in the upper portion of the vaulted ceiling where the angle is much more drastic.
There is one shared bathroom near the entrance to the second story. The bathroom is standard except has a separated vastly sized inlayed tile tub. The tube is secluded and with low light and a window overlooking the moors.
On a purely functional level this home flows quite nicely as far as the layout of the rooms. When critiquing this home it is important to keep in mind that it is a vacation rental, not a typical residential project. This allows A House for Essex to be more for entertainment value and less for functionality, however this is a very bold design statement which will always face opposition.
This blatant contrast between A House for Essex and the grey moors can be not only starting, but off-putting to some. Those with a more traditional sense of how an English country cottage should be represented, might be resistant to such a bold home. Furthermore there are individuals that might find Perry’s and Holland’s pursuit to meld various architectural styles together lacking in cohesion. For example the pursuit to meld together Thai temple architecture and Neolithic ornamentation. I believe that this can be one of the largest critiques of this home, that there is a lack of overall harmony throughout the entirety of A House for Essex. There are certain elements that can be connected together from room to room, but as for a flow from room to room the juxtaposition of the rooms can feel a bit too raw. To extrapolate on that point some of the focal points and accent could be considered to be inappropriately exaggerated.
No matter how individuals choose to react to this experimental design project they still have been influenced by this environment to feel, those distinct emotions. In conclusion A House for Essex is an expression of a futuristic concept in interior design of allowing a home to have its own narrative.