Architect Richard Horden, 65, is best known for his modern, minimal designs. His latest project includes the Micro Compact Home – a development devoted to the creation of small, cube-shaped, eco-friendly homes. His latest book, ‘Micro Architecture’ (Thames & Hudson), presents the variety of micro homes available, from mountain retreats to reed huts. Brought up in Poole, south-west England, Horden continues to live there.
What did you have in mind when you built your current home, House on Evening Hill?
I’m very fond of sailing and boats generally. The building is kind of a yacht with a main deck [above], and the cabins underneath, so that you have a good view over the harbour. I like to make very light, minimal architecture.
Was the home you grew up in a very minimal house?
No. It was very traditional. But then I built a house for my parents, which was the precursor to this one. They allowed me to build their house as a student. It’s not every parent who takes that kind of risk or has that mental freedom to allow their son to design their house. [That was] 1972 and for England it was quite a contemporary house. But you would have seen a house like this in California in the 1950s and 1960s. Poole is very much the California in England; if you can imagine such a thing ... it’s like Beverly Hills.
MY FAVOURITE THINGS
Textiles and a compact car
I’m very fond of modern art – great American artists such as Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth Snelson.
My wife and I collected textile art and one of the pieces (right) is by an English artist called Polly Binns. I’m interested in textile because it makes the jump between painting and sculpture.
Marijke de Goey’s works are so spatial but in such a delicate way. She does sculptures in the landscape; she’s a close friend. Poppy and Christian did paintings when they were very, very small. They are lovely works.
I have a Smart car in Switzerland and one in Poole. Now Poppy has a Smart too.
What made you decide to build your home?
The human side to this building is that my wife died in 1998 in a horse riding accident in Hyde Park, London. I had children aged nine and 12, Poppy and Christian, at that time. I was very fortunate to be able to do this: I had bought this piece of land and I was waiting to build. [The house] gave the family a new start; this was good for me, it was good for the children, it made them realise that whatever happens in life you can start over ... and I think this is a wonderful thing. It was a kind of physical way of saying, you know, “nothing’s changed. I’m Dad and you’re the kids ... and we’re getting on ... and we’re going to have an exciting life ahead of us”. [It’s] not backward-looking, it’s forward-looking. Life doesn’t have reverse gear, it only has fast-forward – you don’t have a choice. The important thing is to remember that and to keep a focus on rebuilding. There is great strength in the human being to be able to rebuild. This is a kind of physical cleaning, calming. It’s absolutely modest, in the sense that it’s saying that nature is the prime “ordinator” of what’s going on, really.
What or who are your major influences?
Charles and Ray Eames and the US Case Study House Programme. Craig Ellwood is another – he was kind of the Steve McQueen of the architectural world in the 1960s. When Steve McQueen was making the movies, Craig Ellwood was building the “most wild” buildings in California, as was Future Systems.
Can you tell me a little about the design and orientation of the house?
It is special because it’s facing south over the harbour, so it gains a lot of natural energy from the sun bouncing off the water and it’s completely heated by the sun. I’ve tried to design it as much as possible with passive energy, adding active systems later.
Does the house act as a retreat for you?
I travel a lot so to get back to something calm is very important. When you are living a very dynamic life you need to have some moment of calm during the week – and this house is absolutely wonderful for that. But, at the same time, it’s inspirational because it’s looking over the sea. You see the windsurfers and the kite-boarders – there’s a lot of activity going on but I’m in a very calm space watching it.
When you were building the house, were there certain elements you wanted to include?
When I build something I try to optimise an aspect of a particular place or site or location. So the whole thing, for me, is to build with the minimum amount of material to create the basic needs. It’s not about big kitchens or expensive fittings. You can live well when you pull back and people don’t realise this. For me, the ultimate thing is to live with nature, not put it behind a big thick door and get on with my big kitchen.
You’ve decorated the house with some of your own design pieces.
Yes. I used acrylic because of the children. I wanted to have transparent furniture because it doesn’t interrupt the space. It meant the children could run around and not get hurt on the corners of the table. It’s also warm to touch; it’s not cold like glass, so if you’re working or drawing it’s really nice. Things like that – little human things – are important to me.
It sounds as though your home is the family’s gathering hub.
It’s very important that a house is not just for one person. It’s home for Poppy and she loves it, and her friends love it. My mother is 93 and lives about five minutes’ drive away and so she comes over at the weekend. The first thing she does is go to the window at the front and look out at the view of the harbour. She found the site here. She rang me in the office one day, probably 10 years before the building was completed, and said: “Richard, you’ve got to get the next train down to Poole. I’ve found some land for you by Poole harbour and I think you should buy it.” I always do what she says; she has a very, very good eye for things.
If you could pick anywhere in the world to live, where would it be?
Switzerland. We’re building a micro home there now.
