Past Field

This is a private house commissioned in 1959 and built in 1960 by Patrick Gwynne for Dr and Mrs A Salmon. It was extended in 1967 according to Gwynne’s original design. The house is constructed of purple Fletton brick and Afrormosia timber boarding, with a monopitch roof featuring deep eaves and an aerofoil-shaped underside. It has an angled plan and is single-storied.

The entrance front has a brick wall to the left, with a clerestory over, and vertical Afrormosia timber boarding to the right, also with a clerestory. The door is inset at an angle, made of frameless toughened glass with a fixed light to the side, and abuts a curved timber wall within the bathroom. A brick crosswall forms a pier at an inset angle on the garden front. To the left are six bays beneath the eaves, which are shaped and coated in Pyroc rough plaster. To the right, three bays have full-height steel-framed glazing, with two further projecting bays over a brick-paved terrace; the end bay has an octagonal window.

Inside, the ceilings are finished with Pyrok. Purple Fletton brick is used as paving in the hall and extends through a sliding door to the living room, where it forms a raised platform by the fireplace, with two cantilevered steps of black terrazzo leading down to the African hardwood block flooring. The brick paving continues to the external terrace. The fireplace wall is of purple Fletton brick with a simple recessed hearth and other openings. Shaped crosswalls, following the line of the roof, have narrow flashgap joints. Exposed brick continues along the back wall, with two 3.5" steel columns projecting forward to support a veneered and topped unit. Black terrazzo shelves are within the wall, and one end wall is vertically boarded with a large opening where an original door and hatch once were. The dining room is also vertically boarded, with the kitchen beyond. The bathroom has lemon yellow mosaic tiling to dado height and angled laminated fittings. Bedroom crosswalls are of lavender-coloured sand-lime brick, shaped to the roofline. The principal bedroom includes a built-in desk within vertically boarded panelling.

This is a relatively low-budget house demonstrating core principles of Gwynne's architecture including a variety of materials, the effect of plan and levels, and non-orthogonal geometry.