Hopkins House

Hopkins House is a house and former office built in 1975-6 by Michael and Patty Hopkins for their family, and designed to accommodate their architectural practice until the mid-1980s. The structural engineer was Tony Hunt.

The building’s structure is a lightweight steel frame, painted blue, featuring eight 60mm x 60mm internal columns and open web bar beams arranged on a 4m by 2m grid. This allows for small structural components and eliminates the need for secondary structural elements. The front and rear walls are largely glass, while side walls and ceilings are clad in corrugated steel sheeting, producing a horizontal ripple effect accentuated by aluminium Venetian blinds used for shading the windows and creating internal partitions. Floors and walls are thin membranes. Perimeter columns are positioned closely enough to support the cladding and glazing directly, minimizing visible trim and concealing window rails within the frame.

The house is laid out over two levels, taking advantage of a steeply sloping site with a 3m difference between street and garden levels. Entry is via a metal footbridge on the upper, street-level floor. The building occupies a 12m by 10m footprint, providing two floors of approximately 120 square metres each, connected by a central spiral staircase. The upper floor on the right-hand side was originally used as an office, while the lower floor, overlooking the garden, contained the kitchen and main living space. Bedrooms are located on both upper and lower levels, grouped around service cores containing bathrooms. The master bedroom overlooks the garden on the upper level, with children’s rooms and other spaces on the lower level, facing the roadside.

The glazed street frontage, set back by a one-metre gap on either side from neighbouring houses, presents a low and discreet appearance, accessible by a central mesh footbridge. The lower-level rear elevation opens directly onto the garden at a lower level, via sliding doors within the glazing.

Internally, spaces are defined by the square section columns and frame, from which Venetian blinds are suspended, providing considerable flexibility. On the lower level, bookcases and partition walls delineate the bedrooms, with similar partitions enclosing the service cores. The steel spiral staircase, also coloured blue, was inspired by Neave Brown’s Winscombe Street terrace, the Hopkins’ previous home.