When Graham Brooks supervised ‘some alterations to a large Victorian house’ in Llandaff, he suggested to the owners, Sydney and Della Isaacs, that ‘if ever the house should become too big for them, they might built a new, smaller one at the end of the garden, where he was already helping them to construct a swimming pool.’
Twelve years later (in June 1978), the Isaacs took Brooks up on his suggestion. Part of the brief was that the new house should look ‘mellow and comfortable. There was to be no slick, glossy and blatantly new look.’ They also wanted the building to be low maintenance and ‘because they were used to large rooms, the Isaacs did not want to find themselves confined in a poky, claustrophobic box, even though the area available was small. Finally, the existing swimming pool should be incorporated in the design in as pleasant a fashion as possible.’
The new house, built by T Boaget and Son of Penarth between October 1979 and December 1980 at a cost of £69,000, is a four-bedroom, single-storey, L-shaped construction, ‘angled around the pool, with walls and pergolas filling the remaining sides of the square to form a small but charming courtyard garden.’ The house is south facing and all the main windows face inwards, towards the pool and sunny courtyard. The short side of the ‘L’ shape houses the sitting room and two small bedrooms and provides ‘a blank wall and complete privacy to the reduced but adequate garden of the old house.’ The living area was in the longer side, and ‘the width of the side was ideal for the living area leg to be set back from the road sufficiently to accommodate a double car port and entrance courtyard.’ No rooms looked out on to the road, allowing the new house to slip ‘into position almost imperceptibly, with as little obtrusion as one would expect of the rebuilding of a garden wall.’
Externally, ‘brick paving encircles the pool (with pockets of earth left for low planting) and plants scramble up black-stained pergolas to make pleasant seating areas. There is no discordance such as occurs when the continuity such as occurs when the continuity between inside and out is broken.’ The house is located within a conservation area, surrounded by properties built in the Victorian era. ‘However, his clients’ special requirements for a restrained, mellow-looking house, and his own predilection for natural materials, resulted in a modern but unobtrusive design which has fitted most felicitously into the street scene. Low in outline and dropping away from the road to follow the slope of the site, the house scarcely needs the brick wall which screens it from the road and which helps to form a courtyard entrance.’
The interiors are ‘a celebration of brick and wood. In most of the rooms the walls are rough brick-work, the individual bricks in various shades of red, occasionally black. Some walls are clad in red wood, with many of the ceilings in the same material. Here and there the black bricks are matched by ceiling beams stained in black. […]. Double doors connect several of the main rooms so that […] you could easily drift from one room to another, almost as if the house was open plan.’ To provide the low maintenance required of the brief, ‘all woodwork is stained rather than painted, with black used on skirtings, door frames and architraves and a deep, soft red on internal oak doors. Red brickwork walls are unplastered, the floors are made of bricks laid in a traditional basketweave pattern (covered in a protective lacquer) and ceilings throughout are lined in redwood boards, including the high sloping ceiling of the large living room.’
All the main rooms have ‘has floor-to-ceiling glass, containing French windows opening to the pool, which itself reflects light back into the house. There are also skylights in several of the rooms so that they are lit from above as well. The sitting room even has a large triangular window in the west wall, positioned to catch the setting sun. At that time of the day the room is full of beautiful light.’ Like many of Brooks’ designs, ‘purpose-made glazed strips have been incorporated where the sloping ceiling meets the parapet wall in living, dining, kitchen and entrance hall, and the lighting effects on the textured red brick walls are both attractive and serve to provide a natural light source to each area of the room.’
‘The living room, which runs along the road front of the house […] is just as spacious as the Isaacs required and made more so by containing the corridor link to the bedroom wing. A half height wall subtly separates the corridor (which is lined with books) from the main part of the room and forms a back and base for the large, handsome seating units. This living room is approached via a square two-level hall and is flanked on one side by the kitchen and utility room, on the other by the bedroom and bathroom.’
13 Howells Crescent (Belhaven) was featured in The Builder, Ideal Home magazine, and the Penguin publication, Buildings of Wales. Mr McCabe, who lived at Belhaven between 1989 and 1996, said: “It seems to have universal appeal – some people tell me it reminds them of houses in Scandinavia, others say it reminds them of Asian buildings. One of the main reasons I like it is because it’s an intelligently designed house – for example, every area has its own cupboard space. It’s a very easy house to live in.”
Sources: Building Dossier compiled by Anthony Williams and Partners, Building, (26 November 1982) – includes architect’s and builder’s report; Jose Manser, Testimony to Design, (article in unknown magazine); The Western Mail Welsh Homes, (9 November 1996)
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 21st March 2022