Designing Timber issue 10 for online - Flipbook - Page 39
———— A STEP UP FOR HASTINGS HOUSE ————
←
Drawing
showing
the simple
fundamental
connection
principle of the
notched LVL
beams.
The LVL also blends nicely
with other timber used across
the project. The windows and
doors were built in red grandis
- a fast-growing eucalyptus
- by Dagenham-based
subcontractor K&D, while
another subcontractor, Jones
Neville, did all the internal
joinery in cherry.
The exteriors are either clad
in galvanized steel (at the
top) or in the red grandis that
surrounds the sliding doors
and glazing; and occasionally
in concrete in the case of the
structures set into retaining
wall or an extended existing
wall. The red grandis is treated
with a protective 昀椀nish that is
semi-translucent to reveal the
grain of the timber.
“We deliberately tonally
matched the cherry and the
red grandis – they are very
close in colour," Hugh says.
INSPIRATION
Choosing sympathetic
materials
→
Interior joinery
was made in
cherry wood,
such as the
bench beneath
the glazing.
"The LVL is fundamentally
spruce; and we’ve also used
spruce plywood. So the nonstructural timber is a nice red
while the structural timber is a
little paler.
"The ceilings of the buildings
are all plywood. All three
of the new roofs are green;
while we also built a series of
planters up the hillside. The
combination of green roofs
and planters has created
much more absorbent ground
than previously: some of the
repairs to the terraces have
allowed us to direct rainwater
towards the plants."
DESIGNING TIMBER
39
NOV/DEC 2025
A house that makes
sense of its site
“The house now turns towards
the back instead of away
from it and the di昀昀erent
buildings make the most of
the stepping-up levels of the
hillside," Hugh states. "The
new route that we've given
the house threads through
new and repaired works to a
central space onto which the
three new structures all look.
The top terrace looks down
upon the building and, 昀椀nally,
you reach the road at the top.
The enjoyment of the grain of
the repaired hillside, is part of
what the project's about.”
