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This spectacular property, located on a private road in the sought-after village of Holyport, Berkshire, is one of a group of three of the finest architect-designed houses in the UK. Designed in the late 1960s by the architects Peter Foggo and David Thomas, these houses are of steel frame, glass and wood construction much in the manner of the famous Californian ‘Case Study’ houses of Richard Neutra, Charles Eames and Craig Ellwood. The house has recently been extensively refurbished and sympathetically extended to an exacting standard.
Holyport
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History
The Holyport houses were an early project for a pair of talented young architects who went on to become directors at the renowned Arup Associates and later to establish their own successful practices.
Peter Foggo and David Thomas met whilst studying architecture in Liverpool in the 1950s. The pair of them came together over a shared passion for the work of Mies van der Rohe, (indeed they even once persuaded the legendary architect to travel to Merseyside to give a talk to students).
Foggo and Thomas designed the Holyport houses in their spare time as both were then working in other architectural offices. It is said that they came home from their day jobs and spent between 8pm and midnight working on other architectural projects for themselves, such as this one. Another house designed by Foggo & Thomas at around this time, 'Sorrel House' near Chichester, is now Grade II* listed.
Foggo and Thomas both went on to work with Ove Arup at Arup Associates. Foggo (1930-1993), was largely responsible for the celebrated design of the Broadgate complex in the City of London. Foggo's colleagues at Arup Associates – Philip Dowson, Ronald Hobbs and Derek Sugden – wrote the following about Foggo in a 1994 edition of Building Design:
"His work is marked by its clarity and directness, which was also the nature of his character. The plans and the sections of his buildings were always ordered and structured, both in concept as well as practical reality. Rigour in analysis and rationalism in practice invested all that he did and is perhaps the hallmark of his work".
The Holyport houses are three of a number of ‘H-houses’ (so named because of the shape of their original plans) designed by Foggo and Thomas. In a 1994 edition of the Architects Journal, Barrie Evans wrote the following about the houses:
‘[The houses] comprise a series of braced steel trusses supported from eight stanchion columns, with timber-frame walls, floors and roof slung between. This is supplemented with large areas of plate glass. The 'H'-shaped plan is made up of a central service core, opening onto front and rear terraces, with living and bedroom wings flanking on either side.“
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