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The art of living
United Kingdom Architecture News - May 19, 2014 - 11:21 2470 views
Richard Woods's puckish WoodBlock House wears his art on its sleeve. Matt Gibberd admires the architecture of artists' houses
The residents of an east London council estate may be forgiven for thinking that SpongeBob SquarePants has moved in across the road. The newly completed WoodBlock House, designed by Richard Woods in collaboration with architects dRMM, is emblazoned with the artist’s characteristically puckish cartoon-style graphics. “A lot of what I do is nearly art, or nearly not art, and I wanted my house to be the same,” he explains. A printing workshop occupies the ground floor, with residential accommodation for Woods’s family above. “I have always wanted to bring the production and the family together,” he says.
WoodBlock House, designed by Richard Woods in collaboration with architects dRMM
As his name might suggest, Woods likes wood, and the house is constructed entirely from the stuff, giving it a singularly embracing atmosphere. The frame is made from cross-laminated timber (CLT). The architects say that “more carbon dioxide is absorbed through the lifetime of the trees used than expended through manufacture, delivery and installation.” As well as adorning both front and rear façades, Woods’s trademark painted woodgrain has been used up the stairs internally.
Home of artist Stefan Dunlop, a design collaboration with Bark Design, Noosa northeastern Australia Picture: Christopher Frederick Jones
Right next door to the Woods residence is another live-work artist’s studio, built a number of years ago by the architectsSergison Bates. And around the corner is the home of Sean Griffiths, co-founder of the now-defunct FAT Architecture, a Pop Art experiment that he once described as “Adolf Loos on the inside, South Park on the outside.”...Continue Reading
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