Severels

Severels is a timber-framed house on a concrete raft foundation with a brick stack. The external walls are clad in vertical cedar boarding, now grey with age, and the pitched roofs are slate.

The house is planned as a central two-storey module flanked by single-storey wings on both north and south sides, with all five elements expressed as separate modules with rounded corners. These are linked at ground floor by a broad, single-storey spinal hallway. The principal entrance opens into the hallway on the left side of the central range, with a secondary entrance on the right side. Further doors open into the garden and upstairs onto the flat roof over the hallway.

The central two-storey module contains the cloakroom, stair, bathroom, and upstairs and downstairs bedrooms. The single-storey modules to the north contain the owner's office and garage, while those to the south contain the living room and kitchen.

The roof of the central module consists of four opposing pitches, with each single-storey wing having a single pitch in a direction opposing its neighbour, all linked by the flat roof of the hallway. This creates a complex skyline of flat and mono-pitched roofs. The irregular elevations are formed by the projecting curve-cornered modules and the recessed, mainly glazed walls of the hallway. To the centre of the entrance front is a large flat-roofed oriel which lights the stair; to the garden front is a large arched brickwork stack and a second sloping oriel.

The joinery is thick-sectioned timber with glazed external doors set within glazed screens. The up-and-over timber garage doors are also glazed with opaque glass. The windows are rectangular, with top-hung, side-hung, and fixed casements.

Internally, the cedar cladding which wraps the modules externally passes through the walls of the hallway, continuing to define the curve-cornered forms. The relatively low boarded ceiling of the hallway contrasts with the ceilings of the single-storey modules, which are open to their sloped roofs with exposed timber trusses and pine board linings.

From the hallway, full-height white-painted timber doors in unpainted surrounds serve the downstairs rooms. A folding screen closes off the dining area at the south end of the hallway. The dining area links the living room and kitchen modules, with the three areas divided by half-height cupboards. The living room has a dark brick stack with a round-arched fireplace containing a stove. Half the room is lined with bookcases following the curve of the walls, while the other half is largely glazed with a fixed window seat overlooking the garden and a clerestory window in the soffit above the lower ceiling of the dining area.

At the centre of the house is an open-tread timber stair, cantilevered out from a stepped timber skirting, with thin steel balusters and a thick timber handrail. The upper floor has a large landing from which a guest bedroom, bathroom and WC, and main bedroom with dressing area lead off. The first-floor rooms have exposed timber trusses and boarded timber ceilings.

Throughout the house there is much built-in furniture, mainly shelving, cupboards, and wall-mounted surfaces for sitting at. The furniture is executed in unpainted softwood with cupboards having flush-panel painted doors with tubular metal handles to match the internal room doors. The aesthetic is consistent throughout—bedrooms, office, kitchen, and living room—and is simple, precise, and consistently good.

The design was meticulous in its planning, extending beyond immediate practicalities to allow for future needs. The owner, who suffered from MS, foresaw a time when an upstairs main bedroom would be impractical and accordingly designed the two downstairs bedrooms, beneath the main bedroom, to allow removal of the dividing wall to create a downstairs bedroom equal in size to the main bedroom above. Conversely, the main bedroom upstairs has two adjacent doors and was designed to allow easy insertion of a dividing wall to create two rooms from one.

The external cedar cladding is regularly damaged by woodpeckers and has been periodically renewed. A recent flood necessitated renewal of internal cedar cladding due to water damage. Replacement of cladding sections and other general repairs have been executed with sympathy to the original fabric and have not impacted on the building's strong concept or aesthetic.