South of the Thames, behind an Edwardian-style redbrick facade in a row of very similar houses, you will find a surprising project – but no hint of it from the street.
This is the home of Mat Barnes, Cardiff-born architect and founder of Critical Architecture Network (CAN), where he lives with his wife, Laura Dubeck, and young children Aurie and Sidney. When they bought the house, it had been neglected for some time. But perhaps it was the building’s dilapidated condition that attracted Barnes (named by the Royal Institute of British Architects as one of its rising stars), because he saw the possibility of a radical renovation where he could flex his creativity.
The house is called Mountain View, because Barnes placed the profile of a mountain on the roof of the extension at the rear, which acts as a gable.
This curious project must be seen in all its complexity: the luminous entrance hallway, leaving the living room bathed in blue; the kitchen full of unique creations and curious finishes; the new extension, like a glassed-in veranda stretching out towards the garden and, once outside, looking over your shoulder, that profile of a mountain at the top of the new addition. “The inspiration came from a very realistic mountain at Disneyland, an attraction called the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride,” says Barnes. “I wanted something that was tongue-in-cheek, that looked heavy (it’s actually made of very light foamed aluminium) as opposed to the lightness of the new added body whose supporting elements have been minimised.”
The kitchen also displays touches of originality: a rough, brutalist wall “to resemble a cave” forms the backdrop to the dining table; the wall on the opposite side has exposed bricks painted light green, inspired by a wall Barnes saw in the film Trainspotting, with two red cartoon arrows embedded in it.
The kitchen cabinets are made from recycled plastic, mainly derived from chopping boards and milk-bottle tops, while the support columns are half red, half white. “I wanted to be reminded of the renovation process of the house, when the posts were put in place to do the survey,” says Barnes.
The dining area is centred around a table designed by Barnes’s studio, part of the Liquid Geology collection. The wavy enamelled steel top evokes water, while the recycled rubber legs represent rock formations, visually contrasting with the top. On the table is a Carrot Vase from the Nathalie du Pasquier Memphis collection and a porcelain centrepiece by James Hayon for Lladrò.
The material used to make the furniture is recycled plastic produced by Smile Plastics.
Two sections of a rough concrete wall that marked the old boundary, before the extension, have been left as they were, as a decorative element, a memory of the past and as a place for plants. During the rebuilding work it was discovered that the floor could be lowered by almost 1m to garden level, giving a sense of spaciousness rare in English townhouses.
The all-blue living room, on the other hand, creates a world of its own, thanks to its smaller proportions and enveloping colour. Fragments of plaster mouldings on the walls, also painted blue, pay homage to London’s Sir John Soane’s Museum, where Barnes designed a temporary installation.
Tiles are used throughout and they provide striking visual effects: portions of the floor are like checkered sheets, while damier tiles, in shades of grey, adorn the walls of the glazed extension. In the bathroom, a vibrant orange ceiling, and blue and white wall and floor tiles, generates a burst of energy.
In one of the bedrooms, a skylight has been opened with wooden beams.
Searching for influences, from Memphis to postmodernism, from pop art to a reinterpretation of classical styles, makes sense up to a point. Barnes’s position is not that of someone searching for the past – he’s simply looking for different ways to inject joy into design.
“I think that in architecture any inspiration should be allowed, whether it comes from high or low culture,” he says. “Architecture should represent the personalities and tastes of the users and, just like them, it does not need to have a unifying theme – that would be too simplistic. Architectural ideas and references should be as complex and contradictory as the personalities and tastes of the people who occupy them.”
