How Ryan and Rebecca Gander turned a higgledy-piggledy house into a wheelchair-friendly family home in Suffolk
During its two-century lifespan, Ryan and Rebecca’s Georgian home in the market town of Saxmundham, in Suffolk, has been a department store, a B&B, an artist’s studio and a school. “The teacher would sit where I sit in my office next to the fireplace,” says Ryan. Having grown up in suburbia, he had always romanticised living in an old house set among a rural landscape, with a lots of character and a rich history, which is exactly what he and Rebecca found. But old houses also tend to be higgledy-piggledy, with lots of nooks and crannies that can be difficult to navigate in a wheelchair. “It was a rabbit warren of little rooms,” says Rebecca, recalling its former layout.
With a brief to create a modernist-inspired home that Ryan could easily manoeuvre, the couple sought the expertise of Matheson Whitely to spearhead a renovation and its practical details, including the material palette. Ryan, on the other hand, drove the vision. “I approached it as an artwork – as a chance to make beautiful things that I feel proud of leaving behind in the world,” he explains. That meant reconceiving the house as four big open squares, connected via gradually sloping ramps, with nods to 20th-century design throughout – see the spectacular Josef Albers fireplace in the sitting room. And it’s not just Ryan who has reaped the rewards of the reconfigured house. “It’s just great for the kids,” says Rebecca. “We build dens and play massive sprawling games of Playmobil.”
Watch the film now as Ryan and Rebecca talk about their home’s Tardis-like quality and explain how it’s given Ryan the opportunity to live his best creative life. Like what you see? We think you’ll love our full-length print story on the Ganders and their glorious house, which features in Issue No.5 of The Modern House Magazine. Be sure to pick up your copy here.
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