Modernist Architect Peter Womersley’s First Home Design Just Got a Faithful Restoration

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Project Details:

Location: Selkirk, Scotland

Main Contractor: Laurence McIntosh

Photographer: Dapple Photography / @dapple.photography

From the Architect: “Loader Monteith carefully restored High Sunderland, the 1957 modernist icon designed by Peter Womersley for internationally-renowned textile designers Bernat and Margaret Klein. The home required sensitive and complex restoration after weather and fire damage in 2017. The architects and their clients saw the accident as a positive opportunity to restore and enhance the Category A-listed woodland retreat in the Scottish Borders to its original Womersley vision, with invisible, sustainable upgrades.

“High Sunderland was Womersley’s first personal residential fee, nicknamed The See-Through House for its lengthy glazed elevations. Bernat, a textile designer and Margaret, a gifted knitwear designer, lived at High Sunderland till they handed. It was the center of their skilled and private lives. The couple constructed their careers, hosted style reveals, exhibitions, and raised their household on the woodland retreat. High Sunderland was bought for the primary time in 2017. While present process fundamental repairs, it suffered intensive structural injury attributable to a small hearth. Steel roof trusses, insulation, and far of the unique timber paneling had been all destroyed by the hearth and extinguishing water, whereas the principle front room and first bed room had been broken by smoke. The new house owners acknowledged High Sunderland as a undertaking of nationwide significance and examine themselves as custodians, slightly than house owners, of the house. They noticed the devastating accident as a optimistic alternative to precisely restore and improve the modernist icon.

“An intense period of damage appraisal ensued, led by Loader Monteith’s conservation specialist, Iain King. In researching the project, Loader Monteith found original construction details in a 1959 Swiss periodical, giving the studio unique access to Womersley’s vision for the house. Womersley and the Kleins had aspirations for High Sunderland to be as close to living in nature as 20th-century technology would allow, something Loader Monteith wanted to give back to the house with as many invisible modern environmental additions as possible.

“To improve the thermal efficiency of the home, Loader Monteith packed insulation into a brand new heat roof, for which they studied the profiles of Womersley’s different residential initiatives to discover a sympathetic design for the brand new barely pitched roofscape. On the brand new roof, a timber-clad dice hides a warmth pump. A brand new moist underfloor heating system in the principle lounge space provides improved thermal insulation. This incorporates flooring floor temperature management to guard the unique strong hardwood timber flooring, and room temperature management to keep away from overheating and power waste. Much of the lighting and wiring was up to date consistent with present electrical security requirements.

“Conservation and rebirth projects often center on the contrasts between new and old. However, at High Sunderland, Loader Monteith and their clients embraced the home’s heritage. This presented a challenging, sobering task for the architects; how much of the house should be preserved, and how much of Bernat and Margaret Klein, the real lifeblood of the home, should be memorialized, too? In replacing damaged cabinetry, Loader Monteith found brush strokes where Bernat cleaned his paint brushes, scratched and burnished into the timber over decades of painting with the same view to nature. Loader Monteith worked with a local joiner to preserve these delicate details, highlighting their commitment not only to the architecture, but the personality and use of this over time, and the role it has played in the Kleins’ creative pursuits.”