1-6 Little Orchard

1-6 Little Orchard: A Group of Six Houses

This group of six houses forms a self-contained, carefully designed ensemble set on a sloping site. The architecture is unified by a consistent design language in which each individual building, tailored to its particular position and aspect, is visually and physically linked to its neighbours by white painted connecting walls with railed garden gates.

The setting is characterised by stone-faced retaining walls to the high bank at the entrance and where banks are cut for parking access. Granite sets accent the tarmac of the curving roadway and line the banks, surrounding a tree that punctuates the widened space at the end of the cul-de-sac. The site retains many mature trees, with open landscaped banks on the roadside and enclosed gardens to the rear of each house.

The houses exploit the sloping site by positioning the main accommodation on an upper level over garages and stores on the road side, bringing it to ground level at the rear with direct access to enclosed gardens. The design is largely concrete construction: cast in-situ ribbed and hammered concrete for sections of the principal storey, with some walls of painted concrete block. The ground floor uses fair-faced reinforced in-situ cast concrete painted white. Reinforced concrete floor slabs and wood-wool slabs form the flat roofs. Timber framed roof boxes clad in standing-seam aluminium were part of the original design in phase 2, and are later additions to numbers 1 and 3. Windows are aluminium and timber, used as glazed walls to living rooms, with tall windows featuring a central transom elsewhere. Entrance doors are timber with side lights.

The key design principles exploit contrasts of rough and smooth, solid and void, within a rigorous geometry. The inter-penetration of internal and external space is achieved through large areas of glazing, by extending internal walls to punctuate the external envelope, and by continuing wall and ceiling finishes across walls of glazing.

Number 1 has a simple rectilinear form but was later modified by the addition of a roof box with roof terrace and glass panelled balustrade. Two elevations present to the street, both in ribbed concrete. The entrance is centrally placed on the long front elevation in a cast-glass porch using extruded ribbed profilit glass echoing the ribbed concrete treatment. The garage is beneath the shorter stepped return. Vertical windows pierce each elevation. The rear elevation, not visible but shown in original plans, indicates painted blockwork with a glazed wall to the living room and continuous fascia.

Number 2 remains virtually as originally built. It is a simple rectangular block with the entrance to the right of centre in a cast-glass porch using extruded ribbed profilit glass. This is approached by steps from garage level, which is built under the left-hand section of the house. Vertical windows in the ribbed concrete wall flank the entrance. The rear is largely white fair-faced concrete with large glazed areas and an overall projecting fascia forming a strong geometric composition.

Number 3 is L-plan with a long rectilinear block facing the street. It was later modified by the addition of a roof box above the right-hand section. The garage is beneath this section, with cantilevered steps to its left leading to a terrace in front of the entrance and glazed wall of the dining room. A white-painted wall separating the entrance from the dining room is advanced as a fin to subdivide this area, articulated by an advanced fascia and stopped by the advanced side wall in ribbed concrete. The right-hand section has a ribbed concrete wall pierced by vertical windows. The living room in the rear wing, not visible, is shown in original plans with a glazed wall to the garden and ribbed concrete return wall.

Number 4 retains the original L-plan shape with a long rectilinear block facing the street, but has lost some detail. The garage is under the left-hand section, from which cantilevered steps lead to a terrace in front of the entrance (the original doorway has been lost) and glazed wall of the dining room. A white-painted wall separating the entrance from the dining area is advanced as a fin to subdivide this glazed area, articulated by an advanced fascia (with detail changed) and stopped by the advanced side wall in ribbed concrete. The windows in the original openings of the ribbed concrete wall to the right have been replaced. The living room in the rear wing, not visible, is shown in original plans with a glazed wall onto the garden and ribbed concrete return wall.

Number 5 was part of the final phase and was designed with a roof box from the outset, though this was subsequently extended. The house forms a long rectangular block with the lower-level garage and entrance advanced at right-angles, surmounted by a deep terrace in front of the glazed wall of the dining room and stair hall. The internal dividing wall projects as a white fin. An advanced timber fascia articulates this glazed area. Ribbed concrete block to the right, pierced by a horizontal kitchen window and wrapped around the corner, with fair-faced concrete block walling to the left. The roof box comprises two sections above: a raking wall to the right-hand section and a straight-sided block to the left with a roof terrace beyond. The rear elevation, not visible, is shown in original plans with blockwork walls and the living room advanced behind the entrance area with a glazed wall to the garden.

Number 6 was also part of the final phase and was designed with a roof box from the outset, remaining virtually as originally built. It is a long rectilinear block of ribbed concrete with the garage under the right-hand section. Steps built into the bank lead to the white-painted cantilevered terrace in front of the entrance and glazed wall of the dining room. The internal dividing wall between the entrance and dining area projects as a white fin. A timber fascia advanced over the glazed area and the terrace continues in front of a tall bedroom window in the concrete wall to the right, with a further vertical window set to the extreme left. The roof box over the left-hand side has raking sides and a horizontal strip window.

The rear elevation has strong geometric form: the main accommodation block forms a long low rectangle with a secondary trapezoidal block formed by the roof box above. A fair-faced white painted wall to the kitchen adjoins a large glazed wall of the sitting room to the right, wrapped around the angle. A boarded fascia is advanced across the entire façade. The roof box above features large windows and a railed terrace area.

Each house adopts a similar planning principle with the dining room adjacent to the entrance lobby at the centre, from which bedroom wings, kitchen and living room open off. Bedroom wings have lobbies with top-lit bathrooms and built-in storage. Numbers 5 and 6 were designed with spiral stairs to roof box accommodation. Where ribbed concrete was used, it is sometimes expressed internally, but most internal walls are either unplastered painted blockwork or vertically boarded wood. Ceilings are cedar-boarded, continued beyond glazed walls where projecting fascias are used.