“It's made us better architects.” Talk to Thurman Weston in We do everything from purchasing a site at auction to becoming the prime contractor on a project.
How did you find that site?
percy weston We've been looking for one since 2016 and attended several auctions, but before we knew it, we had failed. Many of them trade for about twice their asking price.However, if you bid on this [being sold by Southwark Council] In 2018, the price was pretty low, so I was pretty sure I could afford it. In other words, the asking price was not significantly exceeded.
So what?
percy weston Then the planning began. We had to create a pre-app very quickly to determine if it could do what we wanted. We had 30 days to complete the auction, so we needed a short period of time to complete the pre-app. Typically, pre-application can take several months, but we were lucky. Very thoughtful officials in Congress responded immediately.
Completion also had some complications, including the discovery of gas mains on site that were not shown on the original auction drawings. This led to several rounds of negotiations with the council and was finally fully completed in 2020. Work on site began in March 2021.
Please tell me about the design of the house
percy weston Three things are happening on this property. Adjacent to the north is his 70's mansion, across the road is a Victorian terrace to the south, and to the west is a former car park (Peckham Levels) across the road. . This is a corner site, so there's a lot going on. For us, it was about playing the game of harmonizing these three different styles.
We also wanted to incorporate some craftwork and the bricks were handmade in Yorkshire. [from a company called Yorkshire Handmade]. The brick lattice mirrors the patches on the facade of Peckham Level, but also provides shade and privacy and looks quite beautiful at night.
Tom Thurman We were very conscious that it was a fairly exposed plot on a corner and wanted the interior to feel cozy and private, but without being mean to the street. I was thinking of doing something like this. The living room is slightly lowered so you have privacy even if you are sitting on the sofa in the living room. I'm pretty tall so I can't see who's there from the street. But at the same time, you can kind of see inside and see life going on. That doesn't mean “get closer.”
However, the broad idea of ​​the facade is a haphazard brick gradation. It becomes more solid towards the bottom, and at the top the header brick recedes 5 millimeters for every 6 courses of his. The breaking of some of the lumps means that as the house rises, it will gradually dissolve, and in the summer plants will also stick out of these holes.
percy weston On the inside, we tried to keep it loose. As of now, there are not many fittings installed. We were trying to create a house where everything wouldn't fit. It's not very smooth. It's okay if there are some scratches. You may receive some shock. It's imperfect, but beautiful.
How did we build to this standard?
percy weston We managed the construction, so we were the prime contractor and did a lot of the labor ourselves.
We had bricklayers and carpenters helping us, and we installed all the internal beams, put the roof on, did a lot of the joinery, and did a lot of sand-blown floors. I mean, that's one of the reasons it took so long.
Have you done something like this before?
Tom Thurman yes! We designed and built his first five projects. We love having the ability to build it. It also gives you a little more freedom to tweak things here and there and make some decisions when you have the material in front of you. Being in a room will give you a sense of its scale, and you can change your mind about where you want things like radiators to go.
What was it like being the prime contractor on a project of this size?
percy weston It's not a very big house, just over 100 square meters. But I wasn't really prepared for how much stress I would be under.
However, in the first stage, I consulted with a contractor that I had often worked with and asked them if they would be willing to build it for me. He was very honest and said, “Look, this is your passion project, not mine. And if I said I'd build it, you wouldn't want to pay the amount I quoted.”
Tom Thurman The difficult part was that we obviously spent a lot of time on the design trying to get everything just right. Hermeticity was a good example. If you just see a slightly bad finish, it's a real pain. Because we've invested literally thousands of hours of our lives into this, and they only have to put in a little bit of effort to do it well. But we also worked with some great subcontractors, which made a big difference.
Percy was here every day for 18 months. I mean, during that period, she was here maybe two days a week, just because she loves architecture, and to help out some extra.
percy weston Looking back, it was just the stress and everything else building up and taking its toll. I have to prepare it. The problem with managing an entire construction project is that you end up doing almost everything, and there are a lot of things you don't want to do that aren't worth your time. I think next time I will choose what I want to do.
How did you deal with other aspects of construction, such as acquiring tools and scrap materials?
Tom Thurman We have become very conscious of waste and in construction everything is packed up. You should always buy a little more because if you run out you have to reorder, which is expensive. In other words, we ended up using scrap materials from other places. This is why the wood floor pattern downstairs looks like this. The garden path is a brick scrap from the facade.
percy weston We were amazed at the impact building even small projects can have. We tried to reuse as much as possible. It made me realize how wasteful construction is.
Tom Thurman Procuring the tools should have been done differently. I should have invested more in all of that from the beginning.
Tools, materials…all need to be stored. And lead times have had a big impact on this due to the coronavirus. Delivery schedules sometimes changed from a few days to three weeks, which was difficult because he had to arrange for people and materials to come after that. Things changed so quickly. In the end, by trying to be proactive and order early, you end up with a bunch of stuff on the site that you won't use for another three weeks and might get damaged.
Do you think this has allowed you to have better conversations with your main contractor?
percy weston It has made us better architects and we now have a better understanding of the role of the main contractor. I now have a better perspective on what that means. Essentially, it's a big risk for the prime contractor.
Tom Thurman The slightest change or delay can cost you hundreds if not thousands of pounds. Main contractors are very good at using things like standardized systems. As soon as you want something a little different, the price increases significantly. I hope you can understand why this is so expensive and time consuming, as you're basically creating something from scratch all of a sudden, rather than just pasting up sheets of drywall.
percy weston There's a big difference between the two, and I certainly have a lot of respect for a good contractor.
Tom Thurman It may sound strange, but some of the repetitive physical labor performed on the job site can be rewarding. There is a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. You may think that was a little cruel, but this floor is already sanded. you did something. At the office, just moving through the lines can take him all day.
How did you balance building this and practicing architecture?
Tom Thurman It was tough because all of this happened at a time when construction prices were skyrocketing post-coronavirus. So, to compensate for that, we spent more of our time.
percy weston This is obviously a bit of a false economy since you have to do “work” to earn money, but that's how we had to do it. At the studio, we weren't getting much in the way of fees from the architects, and there was also pressure to see this through, so things got pretty tough financially at the end.
There were some ideas we had in our heads that we didn't implement. There were also compromises. Not many, but some were made. However, I am very satisfied with the result.
credit
client
Thurman Weston
architect
Thurman Weston
structural engineer
structure workshop
service engineer
Peter Deere & Associates
planting design
Lidia D'Agostino garden design