Oak House
Client: Private
Structural Engineer: Webb Yates
Services Engineer: ISO Energy
Contractor: SW Carpentry & Joinery
Stage: Complete
This two-storey private home sits discreetly amid the detached suburban houses of Shiplake, near Henley-on-Thames. Its pitched roof with decorative clay tiles and deep eaves and gables nod to the Oxfordshire vernacular, but it is a thoroughly modern home in both its construction and its interior.
The brief was for a 223sq m structure to be built to a tight schedule and for a relatively small budget for a one-off house. After dismissing several building methods and materials – including a steel frame and traditional masonry – WGP concluded that a prefabricated timber frame would be most economical, flexible and efficient. Conscious that a rigid use of off-site, modular construction could result in an uninspiring design – small spaces, plasterboard interior and conventional form – WGP proposed that each end of the building should be pre-fabricated but with the middle custom made. The design, developed with Webb Yates engineers, envisaged a large-span, double height atrium that would become the central living space and the heart of the house.
Noting that there would be load-bearing walls on all sides of this space, WGP saw an opportunity to make a feature of the ceiling – the inspiration: the pick-up-sticks game, Mikado. Rather than opting for a standard roof construction for a timber frame building – with a large ridge beam and orthogonal roof joists – it designed a lightweight structure that spanned diagonally across the corners of the house, and that was built on the ground then craned into place. Struts of oak are layered, crossed and scattered to form a strong, latticed, stressed skin with triangular skylights, held back by roof-ties to stop the structure from spreading. The roof soars dramatically 7.7m above the living room like an inverted bird’s nest. A fully-glazed facade on the ground floor offers views across the garden, and four bedrooms lead off it.
In combining the advantages of off-site construction and on-site craftsmanship, the Oak House marries both pragmatism and creative vision.