Chapel House (also known as The Gore) is a single-storey house with swimming pool located on a triangular plot on Llantrisant Road, Cardiff, designed for Mr and Mrs David Chapel.

Completed between May 1963 and May 1966, the architects were Hird and Brooks of Penarth. The quantity surveyor was R. H. Lewis of Penarth and the building work was executed by contractors Northway Bros Ltd.

Because Chapel House is single-storey, with a flat roof, its low profile ensures that it does not disturb the existing environment. Clearly inspired by Danish architecture, the house was ‘planned as two staggered wings linked by a through entrance hall, most rooms face the garden with large windows, presenting blank walls to the world outside.’ The loadbearing brickwork was painted white internally and externally, and the black-stained timber beams are exposed throughout. All the internal walls finish ‘underneath the beam level. The space between the beams serves to provide clerestory windows and top hung ventilators in solid ply. The south side of the hall, living and dining areas is a double-glazed wall with sliding doors; the fixed glazing is set directly into the timber posts. […] In principal areas floors are of maple strip.’ Many years later, Hird and Brooks were commissioned by the Chapels ‘to add a self-contained party room’ to enhance and make use of ‘the large garden beyond the pool.’

Chapel House (or The Gore) was featured in Architect and Building News (6 September 1967), Building Magazine (5 April 1968) and Ideal Home Magazine (March 1969). It proved such a success that Wm. Cowlin asked Hird and Brooks to design the houses at The Mount, Dinas Powis.

The building won a First Classs Commendation from the Civic Trust Award in 1966. The citation stated that Chapel House was ‘a very competent and pleasant piece of domestic architecture, which fits unobtrusively into its surroundings to make a worthwhile contribution.’ It also won a Gold Medal Award in Architecture at the National Eisteddfod in 1968. The citation says that Chapel House was ‘considered to be the best building completed in Wales during the two years previous to the Eisteddfod, and layout, good siting and landscaping were also taken into consideration.’

Sources: Hilling, J. B., (2018) The Architecture of Wales – from the first to the twenty-first century; brochure featuring highlights of Hird and Brooks’ work; Certificates for Eisteddfod award (1968) and Civic Trust Award (1966)

M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 21st March 2022