Westlake House, Peterborough
This high concept modern house built in woodland, presented an interesting engineering challenge.
The striking rectangular house features a flat-roof, steel-frame structure with a plywood skin. It is covered in timber on three sides and to make the most of the views has a front wall made of glass.
The glass units for the front wall had to be cut to within a millimetre, which meant that they could not be ordered until the frame was up and the apertures for the glass were complete. The glass itself had to be toughened and given several coatings of metal oxide, to keep heat out in summer and retain warmth in winter.
Cladding the house in wood was another skilled job as the slats had to fit together tightly, so that rain would run off.
The plywood structural skin and pine cladding were chosen because they were economical and blended with the setting, together with the double thickness of wood also providing good insulation.
The orientation of the house was also important, with east facing windows catching the morning sun and heating the house.
This project was featured on Channel 4’s “Grand Designs’’ programme.
