NEWS ARTICLE: Growing your own

(Fay Sweet, Evening Standard Homes and Property, 26 April 2007)

When a disused vegetable plot came up for sale, architect Paul Zara knew this was the place he could put down roots. Fay Sweet pays a visit.

PAUL Zara was looking to move from his Victorian terrace house in Brighton and had long dreamed of building a spacious, sunny home in the East Sussex town for his growing family. When a disused vegetable patch came up for sale he knew it was a perfect place for his new home.

The site was tricky. “It was next to a railway cutting, reached only by a footpath and directly behind an old greengrocer’s shop,” says Zara. “This land was where they grew their produce to sell in the shop.”

Despite the drawbacks he and his wife, Joanna, a lecturer, loved the place. It was in Hove just a mile from Brighton station, and they made a bid of £150,000 for the site, which measured 45ft by 90ft.

“We’d tried to buy a plot before but every one we’d seen in 12 years had been snapped up by builders and crammed with tiny flats,” says Zara. In this case, planning permission was restricted to a single house, the competition was kept at bay and their bid was successful.

Zara had a clear idea about the home he wanted to create. “It had to be simple, robust and modern with open-plan spaces and lots of natural light. In a sense it is a challenge to the mass housebuilders, because it’s the sort of thing I’d like to go out and buy but they are simply not building.”

As a director of Terence Conran’s architecture practice Conran & Partners, Zara has worked on a huge variety of residential schemes, from small-scale new developments to the recent refurbishment of the Art Deco Brighton landmark Embassy Court. Among the company’s new projects is the £6 million redevelopment of the historic pier at Greenwich, which starts on site this summer, and includes new ticketing kiosks, along with cafes and restaurants.

His new home has to be built on a tight budget. The family sold their Victorian house and moved into rented accommodation close by. After buying the plot, there was £220,000 for the building works, “and we’ve achieved a lot,” says Zara.

The house fits across the full width of the site and the floor plan is an almost perfect square, which leaves half the land for a proper garden. From the footpath, the front door opens onto a long corridor with views of the garden beyond.

There is a guest suite to one side and a study and utility area opposite. Past here, the space opens into a single large multi-purpose room with the kitchen at the heart of the house, a dining room table and then, opened up almost to the roof, is the living area with sliding doors to the terrace and garden. Also at this ground level is the main bedroom, plus a large walk-through dressing room and bathroom.

Upstairs are two big bedrooms for the couple’s sons, Matthew, aged 11, and Michael, seven.

“The design follows the Conran & Partners philosophy of simplicity and quality,” says Zara. “We’ve built with traditional materials, including a brick exterior and slate roof, high-quality timber windows and doors, and solid walls throughout. I don’t see the point of making small savings on things like plasterboard partitions because it means you can’t even put up a shelf.”

When it comes to the finishes and fittings, the Conran philosophy continues. “In striking the balance between the beautiful and the everyday, we have focused the money on things that really make a difference. For example, there’s a lovely solid-oak floor and high-quality German stainless steel door handles. “Meanwhile, instead of a bespoke kitchen, we bought units from a standard MFI range, fitted top-quality appliances and then added a bespoke oak work counter. In the bathroom, too, the tiling is from a basic range, but baths, loos and basins are designed by Philippe Starck and made by Duravit.”

The other great features of the house are the plain white plastered walls that are very easy to maintain, and it is extremely energy-efficient because of the very high levels of insulation in every wall and between floors and ceilings.

“The heating bills are minimal, about half of what we used to pay in the old house, and we hardly ever switch on the central heating. In fact, the gas company contacted us to query our last bill because they couldn’t believe the charge was so low for such a large house,” says Zara.

The result is a much-loved modern family home. “It’s not radical but it is the place we have yearned for. A place that suits the way we live,” says Zara.

For more information please contact Paul Zara, Director, Conran & Partners: cp@conranandpartners.com

April 2007