Blue House
Griffiths, S., Jacob, S. and Holland, C. 2002. Blue House. Shoreditch, London.
| Title | Blue House |
|---|---|
| Creators | Griffiths, S., Jacob, S. and Holland, C. |
| Description | Griffiths is the main designer in Fashion-Architecture-Taste (FAT), a practice known for their investigations into the contemporary use of popular iconography in architecture, as famously pioneered by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. This innovative live/work building, affectionately known locally as the ‘Blue House’, has a cartoon-like billboard character which communicates its function as a home and office. The front has a miniature scale, but the side addressing the main street is made deliberately big in feel. Built for £300,000, the project deploys an innovative use of standard construction methods. The house contains a maisonette for family of three, an office and a separate apartment. Research issues include how to utilise the program requirements and site conditions to create a type of urban housing that play visually on everyday notions about domesticity, yet how achieve this effect within a restricted budget. The scheme aims to achieve a sustainable design that matches with its innovative cultural reading of contemporary urban lifestyles. The Blue House has been widely featured in books, including The Buildings of England – London Vol.5: East (Yale, 2005, pp. 113, 598); New Architecture in Britain (Merrell, 2003, p.165); New London Architecture (Merrell, 2005, p.163); Anglo Files: UK Architecture’s Rising Generation (Thames & Hudson, 2005, pp. 112-27); Gritty Brits: New London Architecture (Carnegie Museum of Art, 2007, pp. 54-55). The project has likewise been extensively covered in architectural and national press, including Sunday Times, Financial Times, Independent, Evening Standard, Icon, L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui, Building Design, Architecture Today, etc. Furthermore, the Blue House was nominated and shortlisted for the Mies Van der Rohe / European Union Prize for Architecture (2003). FAT is also run along with Sam Jacobs and Charles Holland, but Sean Griffiths was the exclusive designer for this project – his own home. |
| Year | 12 Nov 2002 |
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| Publication dates | |
| Completed | 12 Nov 2002 |
| Output media | Design |