In Los Angeles, where your correspondent resides, when someone tears down an old home, they typically build a modern one in its place.
By modern, I mean a two-story rectangular box with white and grey paint and big windows. While they all offer lots of natural light and a clean aesthetic, they all look the same: soulless and boring.
There is, however, a better way to do modernist design, and that’s to incorporate elements of other styles, as the Silver House in Wales has done. One thing you’ll notice driving through Wales is the sheer volume of ancient ruins and less-ancient-still-very-old architecture everywhere. Elements of those structures inspired the Gower Peninsula home, which sits on a Medieval-style ground floor of dry-walled stone. The second floor has giant trapezoidal, cantilevered sections made of wood and steel that rest on top of the stones almost like branches on a tree, complimenting the surrounding environment.
One porch has a pool, while the insides are simple and clean with lots of windows that let the residents take in the views of Oxwich Point. Modern and timeless sit in perfect harmony in the historic area.
Hyde + Hyde, the architecture firm, received two awards for the project: the Royal Society of Architects Wales, “Best Building of 2017” along with an “RSAW award for Architecture” and “Client of the Year” award.
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