Life & Style | Home & Interiors
Sussex beach house gets modern makeover
A 1970s beach house on the South coast of England receives a dramatic architectural overhaul using influences and materials from around the globe
- By Debbie Jeffery, Pictures: Alistair Nicholls
- Published: 00:00 November 15, 2011
- Image Credit: Alistair Nicholls/ANM
- Walnut and lacquered cabinet doors have been teamed with marble and stainless steel counters in the dramatic open plan Italian kitchen.
Locating the front door of Todd Cooper and Giuseppe Sironi's quirky beachside home can prove surprisingly difficult for the first-time visitor. The entrance and neighbouring garage door are purposefully and effectively camouflaged within a wall of unusual oak-strip cladding and there is no handle or conventional door.
"It does sometimes confuse people, but we didn't want to detract from the overall look of the entrance," says Giuseppe. Such attention to detail is evident throughout the five-bedroom home, which was built around the shell of a large but unremarkable 1970s brick beach house. Although the existing building was uninspiring it did benefit from unobstructed views of the English Channel, as well as an unusual ‘butterfly' roof.
The coastal town of Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex is favoured as a holiday destination, and Todd and Giuseppe had previously spent many years living in nearby Brighton. Despite their local knowledge they were shocked at the asking price of close to £1 million (Dh6m) for the unappealing reverse-level property, which stands in a road of beach chalets and 1970s homes.
"It was a funny looking place, and we initially thought it would be really cheap to buy," Todd admits. "It was spring when we first viewed the house, and the nature reserve beach was literally covered with wild flowers growing between the pebbles - something we'd never seen before," says Giuseppe, a retired doctor. "It's quite a special place."
They bought the property in 2006 with the intention of undertaking a full rebuild - stripping the structure back to basics and leaving only the roof and two external walls standing. "We've tackled plenty of renovations to period homes in the past, but this build was particularly challenging, and also our first contemporary design," explains Todd, a former banker. Determined to retain the unusual butterfly-shaped roof of the original house, Giuseppe and Todd worked with Owen Powell Architects to produce a unique design that took nine months and Dh6 million to complete. The property is now worth Dh13.3million.
A separate single-storey annexe and open courtyard have been incorporated into the layout to create a grand entrance hall, with a feature staircase leading up to the open plan living/dining/kitchen space on the first floor, which overlooks the water through a wall of glass doors. "The idea was that the huge fixed panel of glass over the stairs would bounce light down onto the gold leaf tiles lining the pool. It's a lovely feature," says Todd.
Travertine flooring surrounds the indoor pool, and has also been used externally for the terrace around a full-sized rectangular swimming pool. The rear garden area was purposefully kept as simple and natural as possible to allow the beach to remain the focal point, with a decorative balcony designed to limit the direct sunshine into ground floor rooms below.
"The house has two very different faces: the glazed side overlooking the water, and the front - which has small slot windows and appears to be made up from different boxes stacked together," says Todd. "The end result looks like a totally different house, which sits really well on the beach."
The design was inspired by Modernist architecture they had admired while travelling the world. They also own an ocean-front home in Rio, and they wanted to recreate some of the Brazilian influences in their English summer property. In South America, timber is frequently used for doors, walls and other finishes, and in this UK house everything from the thick timber stair treads to the American oak veneered internal doors, bookcases and richly coloured Ipe (Brazilian walnut) hardwood flooring brings warm tones to the pale walls and polished marble interiors.
A previous home in Morocco inspired the polished plaster wall finishes, which have been used in some of the bathrooms. Layers of plaster produce unusual colour variations and contrast with the classic travertine flooring, imported from Turkey.
"I originate from New York and Giuseppe is from Milan - and Italians love design," explains Todd. "Between us we've lived in many different countries and love to travel, so building the house in Shoreham gave us the chance to combine all kinds of influences into one home."
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