Small is Beautiful
The Smallest House in Chelsea
Sundays were made for lazy mornings spent perusing the spreadsheets and given our profession, the Sunday Times ‘Home’ supplement always catches our eye. This week’s featured the article ‘Small is Beautiful’. The article takes an in depth look at Robin Swailes development of the smallest house in Chelsea. At just 290 sq. ft this property is quite literally a one up one down. SOLID have been keeping an eye on the development after Robin approached our team following its purchase in 2016. His initial thoughts were to extend the property over three floors, providing a floor for the bedroom, one for the kitchen and a separate floor for the living room and asked SOLID for their input.
The Sunday Times Home article by Hugh Graham
Small is Beautiful
As most in the industry will know, initial plans are not always viable. Between budget and planning constraints Robin Swailes altered his design and instead opted for a roof terrace with black metal railings, which he had to gain planning permission for due to the house sitting within the conservation area. Following a spend of £400,000 the finished home is a luxurious example of bijou real estate. With state-of-the-art appliances, a wet room, murphy bed, galley kitchen and purple chesterfield sofa bed it would make the perfect bachelor pad.
The property before the refurbishment
Ferry Hinksey Development
Whilst Robin was attracted to this tiny home because, he says, he loves small things, the Oxford based developer is not only known for his minute developments, as our Ferry Hinksey project will confirm. Appointed as Structural and Civil Engineers we are working alongside Robin on the office development within the Osney Mead industrial estate. The design is certainly unique and has thrown up several structural challenges for the team, the substantial curved cantilever, for example, and the projecting quarter round roof light which will support photovoltaic cells and a mechanical ventilation plant. Of course, as always, the team were eager to step up to the challenge, turning to BIM modelling to work out the required geometry.
Design Comes First
Robin Swailes Design and Development states on their website that ‘Design always comes first’ and we can agree. Whilst his tiny homes ooze character, charm and are a prime example of scaled luxurious living, his large-scale developments are always fit for purpose. The Ferry Hinksey development will offer a science-orientated open-plan office space with laboratories and the future of the building has been taken into consideration. The flexible approach to structural loading means that an additional floor can be added should the need arise. With fantastic progress being made on site we look forward to sharing photos as the project completes.
The curved cantilever
The SOLID team look forward to seeing what award-winning developer Robin Swailes has in store for the future and we will, of course, keep you up to date on our Ferry Hinksey project in the coming weeks.