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The client for Spring House, Christopher Cornford, was a painter with specific requirements for the brief. These included secluded spaces (a painting studio with north light, a first-floor library, and three bedrooms of which two would be for occasional use), and entertainment spaces centered on the living room. Cornford's brief for entertainment was that it should be inward-looking to the hearth for the living room and outward-looking for the dining area.

A gravel court with garage faces the private road with the studio to the southwest. The entrance is under a tiled portico at the junction of the clerestory-lit studio and a two-story wall, which rises up further to a chimney diagonally opposite the entrance. Both elements are in reclaimed yellow brick.

The entrance opens into the double-height living space at the center of the scheme. This is surrounded by a more informal family space which opens out on the diagonal to the southeast and the garden beyond the covered terrace.

The structure is based on a 1.8-meter (5.9-foot) module. The monopitch timber roof trusses spring from round timber columns defining the living room and open out to large south-facing clerestory windows. The perimeter walls are in cavity masonry except where they are cut back to reveal the internal column structure in the southeast corner terrace. The internal walls of the first floor are timber boarded to door head height with clerestory lights above.

Additional incidents are provided by small elements, such as an Aaltoesque projecting bay off the stair landing giving views to the west, and a shuttered, unglazed opening in the first-floor interior timber wall looking into living area.

The roof is clad in concrete Roman tiles. The interior brickwork is painted white. The timber structure and most of the interior partitions are left as natural timber. The total construction cost was £15,000.—Roger Stonehouse

Roger Stonehouse studied architecture at the University of Cambridge, spent ten years in full-time practice, and served as professor of architecture and director of the department of architecture at the University of Manchester. He has published over 40 papers and building studies, and lectured and taught widely internationally, particularly in the United States and Australia. Other books of his include The Architecture of the British Library at St Pancras (2004), and the forthcoming Trevor Dannatt: Works and Words (2009).

This article is excerpted from Colin St John Wilson: Buildings and Projects by Roger Stonehouse, copyright © 2007, with permission of the publisher, Black Dog Publishing.

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SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Changes in material from brick to wood correspond with changes in character on the Spring House exterior. Photo: Courtesy Black Dog Publishing Extra Large Image Indirect daylight illuminates the Spring House's main living space. Photo: Courtesy Black Dog Publishing Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Spring House cross-section drawing. Image: Colin St. John Wilson Extra Large Image Spring House upper-floor plan drawing. Image: Colin St. John Wilson Extra Large Image Grantchester Road section drawing looking west. Image: Colin St. John Wilson Extra Large Image Grantchester Road upper-floor plan drawing. Image: Colin St. John Wilson Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.