Commendation for best house of one or two storeys
Moonlight becomes it
The modern houses at Poole in Dorset designed by Steve Lyne of KL Architects for Eddie Mitchell’s Seven Developments have featured in the National HomeBuilder Design Awards twice in previous years. Each year they get more colourful, this year’s having green-tinted double glazing, soft green floodlighting, and pink glass in the front door and in a window of the kitchen above, giving an unexpected rose-tinted glow to interiors that are otherwise pristine white.
Eddie Mitchell makes no apologies for not building the typical mock-Tudor and neo-Georgian houses for which Sandbanks and the Branksome Park area of Poole are famous. Since he built his first modern development in a prime position on the peninsula ten years ago, Sandbanks has become one of the top ten most expensive places in the world for residential property, with the latest houses by Seven Developments costing £3.5 million each. Branksome Park is slightly cheaper, Moonraker having been sold off-plan last year for £2.1 million, with construction completed in November in time for the buyers to move in before
Christmas.
Built on a large site in The Avenue that was previously occupied by a bungalow, Moonraker was deliberately designed to unfold itself to viewers travelling down the steep hill towards a bend in the road. So it was decided that a curved shape would better suit the surroundings than a conventional square design. Concrete Milton rings (normally used for very large drainage pipes) were used for the large chimney that rises through one end of the house, with curved fireplaces inserted on the inside of the rings.
Because the site slopes steeply from front to back, as well as being on a road that slopes steeply from North to South, the geometry is complicated, resulting in a house with an unconventional layout to say the least. The entrance drive slopes up to the house, where even the door to the double garage is curved. The pair of rose-tinted front doors open into a small reception hall, from which electrically operated glass sliding doors open automatically onto the main hall.
To the left is a large living room with a curved fireplace at the far end and a 52-inch plasma TV fitted into the wall. To the right is a long curved corridor leading to a study, a guest bedroom and a home cinema (which can of course be used for a variety of other purposes). Not shown on the floorplan is the fact that the house has a fully equipped multi-gym with a running machine, ski machine and stairmaster with 15-in TVs in front of each.
The curved stairs, with a tall window overlooking a sunken courtyard, take one to the upper floor, which not only has the three principal bedrooms, including a master bedroom with ensuite bathroom, but is unusual in having a large family room with another curved fireplace and an open-plan kitchen with top-of-the-range fittings and appliances..
Because the house is built across a slope, there is a bridge deck from the family room to the garden with its large lawn and surrounding trees giving security and privacy to the property. Steps from the bridge deck lead down to the paved sunken courtyard. This house is miles away in spirit from the traditional design of houses in Branksome Park, but its quick sale off-plan for more than £2 million shows that there is a market for modernity in Poole.
HomeBuilder: SEVEN DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED
202 Sandbanks Road, Lilliput, Poole, Dorset BH14 8HA
Tel 01202 717145 Fax 01202 732617
Contact: Brenda Mitchell, Director
Email: brenda@sevendevs.com
Website: www.sevendevs.com
Architects: KL ARCHITECTS
Hanover House, 136 Old Christchurch Road,
Bournemouth BH1 1NL
Tel 01202 555545 Fax 01202 555546
Contact: Steve Lyne, Director
Email: mail@klarch.com
Photography: PHOTOWORKS (01202 302393)
