Youlbury House

Weekend house built 1969-71 on Boars Hill, designed by Hal Moggridge of Colvin and Moggridge for William and Celia Goodhart (now Lord and Lady Goodhart), with Ove Arup and Partners as engineers.

The structure comprises concrete floors supported on precast columns set back slightly, each a slightly different shape on each level, reminiscent of the hierarchy of the architectural orders and becoming more slender at the upper levels. The exterior is clad in non-load-bearing western red cedar boarding, backed by insulation and plasterboard. Internally there is one load-bearing wall that anchors the house to the slope; other internal walls are brick. The roof is a long monopitch with skylights, including later additions to the dining room to bring light into the centre of the large room.

The external design is a simple rectangle aligned north-east to south-west, but changing levels and a kinked central hallway create a more complex interior. There are two main levels. The entrance floor contains a kitchen and dining room at its northern end, with entrances into an end lobby and to one side. Beyond this, a corridor leads to a master bedroom and two family rooms, with a bathroom. The central hallway is angled, and the staircase is set on the diagonal to gain extra light, deliberately inviting exploration. Stairs descend to a large south-facing playroom. Above the master bedroom, likewise facing the principal south-west view, is a double-height living room, with two further bedrooms behind it intended for visiting family or guests.

Aluminium windows in timber soffits are grouped along the facades in strongly vertical, elegant proportions. The principal rooms have separate clerestory glazing above, with transoms making contrasting horizontals. The dining area has full-height windows, also with horizontal clerestory glazing. A side door has a projecting timber doorhood. The main entrance is in the lowest elevation, set in timber surrounds.

Internally, the staircase balustrade appears to be concrete but is in fact cement. The living room forms the great internal space, with a Parana pine ceiling graded into curves, leaving a large void above where the roof continues straight. Flashgaps at the sides of the ceiling heighten the sense that the ceiling is floating in space. Continuous built-in ash fixings conceal the heating system beneath. The dining room has built-in hot plates on an ash base, a design repeated as a desk in the study; a drawing for this survives in the house dated July 1971.

Lord Goodhart (barrister William Goodhart QC, born 1933) had known the estate at Youlbury since 1935, when his father bought the house next door. Youlbury was then owned by the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, but following his death it was purchased, around 1949, by Lord Goodhart's father. When Lord Goodhart married in 1966, he secured part of the site from his brother, to whom it had passed by inheritance. Goodhart was interested in modern architecture and recognised the site's potential for a new weekend house. Hal Moggridge, brother-in-law to Goodhart's wife, had worked with Geoffrey Jellicoe before forming a partnership with Brenda Colvin in 1969 at Filkins in West Oxfordshire. Though trained as an architect, Moggridge's career subsequently followed his great interest in landscape design, for which he is today internationally known. This is one of only three houses by him.

Goodhart decided to proceed with his scheme in 1967. He gave Moggridge a detailed brief that the house be set over the slope rather than sideways on the flat as the old house had been. He also wanted the main living room on the upper floor, as he remembered that the best views from the old house were at this level. Drawings held in the house show a design changing through 1968, when the rectangular internal plan was abandoned in favour of a hall running at an angle from north-west to south-east, ensuring that no room is quite rectangular. The fenestration pattern assumed its final form as late as November 1969, having previously been more regular. The only major change to the design was made as work began. Early drawings show a balcony to the living room and a car port where the kitchen was eventually built. The house was originally planned to end with the dining room, which would have been a kitchen-diner. At the last minute, Goodhart had the design extended backwards to include a proper kitchen.

Sketches from August 1971 show the garden, where the old Gingko, yews, oaks and pines planted by Evans were retained, together with rockeries, raised paths and steps that head purposefully into the wilderness. The Victorian garden was contained in its wildness rather than restored, a mix of old and modern aesthetics that suits the house particularly well.

Youlbury demonstrates two important features of modern houses: the close collaboration required between architect and client to produce a house of individuality and refinement, and the exceptional relationship between the house and the land, achieved by a client who had known the site since childhood and an architect who had come to specialise in landscape design. The clever plan with its upper living room and skewed staircase is a direct response to the site, as is the dramatic image of the slab suspended over the hillside. It is important also as a rare architectural work by one of the most significant landscape designers of his generation. It is a clean-cut, sharp piece of design that makes the most of good materials and careful craftsmanship, yet retains a warmth and humanity typical of the architect's work in other areas of design.