Creekvean And Attached Entrance Bridge And Walls To Road

Creekvean and Attached Entrance Bridge and Walls to Road

A house built between 1964 and 1967 by Team 4 (Norman and Wendy Foster, Richard and Su Rogers) for Marcus and Rene Brumwell. Laurie Abbott served as assistant architect and Anthony Hunt as engineer. The house was constructed for Marcus Brumwell, founder of the Design Research Unit, and his wife, overlooking a small creek in Falmouth Harbour.

The building is constructed of Forticrete concrete block with glazing fixed in neoprene gaskets. It features flat roofs, the lower one planted as a garden and the upper paved with inset planting boxes. The structure comprises two masses: one housing the principal living spaces and the other the bedrooms, linked by a broad passage designed as an art gallery. These masses are positioned below the level of the hill. The entrance approaches from the road via a small bridge that divides the two house masses. Both masses present unwindowed concrete block walls to the street. The entrance door is located in the two-storey left-hand block, set in an obliquely angled wall, with the entrance direction continuing down a flight of planted steps to garden level.

The two-storey block displays two rows of windows with a yellow-painted concrete floor edge facing the creek and includes a stair giving access to a roof terrace. The lower block features a sloping clerestory against the rear wall with continuous glazing towards the creek. All external doors are frameless glass.

Internally, floors and stairs are of riven blue slate. From the entrance, stairs lead up to an upper-level living room with a gallery to the kitchen below, or down to the kitchen itself. The kitchen contains a free-standing stainless steel service unit with rounded ends mounted on a concrete base. Fixed ladder-like steps of slate provide access to the roof terrace. A top-lit gallery leads from the kitchen-dining room, providing space for hanging pictures and access to three bedrooms. The largest bedroom has built-in bookcases and a door to stairs. The central bedroom features a mirrored wall with fitted wardrobe and doors to a dressing room and bathroom. The end bedroom contains a free-standing concrete L-shaped bed-head unit with bookcase and cupboards. Sliding doors connect the bedrooms and gallery. The Forticrete is left exposed throughout except in the guest lavatory under the staircase, which is rendered.

The bridge links the entrance with the road, and angled walls to either side form an integral part of the composition. A sign reading 'Creekvean' is mounted on one of these walls, designed by Joe Brumwell. Inside the house is another slate plaque by Brumwell commemorating the architects, engineer and builders.

This was the first built work by Team 4 and represents an example of Frank Lloyd Wright's influence on Richard Rogers following his studies at Yale. The building demonstrates early use of modern materials such as neoprene gaskets. The orientation of the house towards the creek view governs the plan, while the steep site governs the section. The design was particularly novel in its scale and plan for its time, and it prefigures significant developments in modern architecture that its young architects would subsequently lead.