Hopkins House

House, built by Michael and Patty Hopkins for themselves and their family in 1975-6. It also served as their offices until the mid-1980s. Structural engineer Tony Hunt.

MATERIALS AND STRUCTURE: lightweight steel frame, coloured blue, with eight 60mm x 60mm internal columns and open web bar beams. It is laid out on a 4m by 2m grid, avoiding the need for secondary structure, and allowing small structural members. The front and rear walls are clad in glass, the side walls and ceilings are of corrugated steel sheeting, giving a horizontal ripple effect repeated by the use of aluminium Venetian blinds to shield the windows and to provide internal partitions.

Floors and walls are thin membranes. Perimeter columns are close enough to be used directly to support the cladding and glazing, with minimum intrusion or trim, the window rails hidden beneath the frame.

PLAN: laid out on two levels, exploiting a steeply sloping site with a 3m difference between street and garden levels, the building is entered via a metal footbridge on the upper, street, level. It occupies a 12m by 10m envelope giving two floors of 120m squared each, connected by a roughly central spiral staircase.

The office is on the upper floor on the right-hand side of the entrance, while the kitchen and main living space is on the lower floor, overlooking the garden.

Bedrooms are on the upper and lower levels, arranged around service cores which contain bathrooms. The master bedroom overlooks the garden on the upper level, with children's rooms and spaces on the lower level on the roadside.

EXTERIOR: the glazed single-storey street frontage, separated from the adjacent houses by a one metre gap each side, appears discreet and low slung, approached by a central mesh footbridge, while the lower level looks out over a raking embankment. The two-storey rear elevation opens directly onto the garden at lower level, through sliding doors in the glazing.

INTERIOR: internal spaces are modulated by the square section columns and frame, from which Venetian blinds are suspended, offering great flexibility in the use of the space. On the lower level bookcases or more substantial partitions separate the bedrooms. The service cores are enclosed by similar partitions. The steel spiral stair, also coloured blue, was inspired by Neave Brown's Winscombe Street terrace, their previous home.