Architecture Wednesday: Bumpers Oast

Bumpers Oast is an odd house, to be sure. My first thought? Box of Crayons. But, no,  the architects designed the house as a  21st century riff on the local oast houses used to dry hops as part of the beer-brewing process. To that end, four shingle-clad towers create a single family home that uses very little energy and yet appears to be a very bold, modern, innovative home.

The home was created for a family that moved to Kent 10 years ago and almost bought an oast house at that time because they wanted that sort of  intimate, idiosyncratic, circular  living space.

The proportions of the tower roundels were based on traditional oasts and stand slightly apart from one another, creating views inwards and outwards, and housing private functions such as bedrooms, bathrooms, and service spaces. The towers are connected to a triple-height central space that forms the heart of the house.

Kent-style tiles were used to create an exterior ‘skin’ in six shades, slowly fading from dark red at the base to light orange at the tip; every tile above eaves level was individually cut, with over 41,000 used across the whole facade.

The interior of the roundels is clad in plywood, as a continuous surface for the cylindrical parts,  with overlapping plywood shingles used for the roof cones. Curved furniture is built into rooms where possible to make the best use of the space. All bedrooms are on the first floor, and each one with its own private staircase to an upper level in the roof cone that can be a play area now, and a study zone later. The master bedroom is designed with a dressing area in the upper space that opens onto an en suite bathroom.

The downstairs bathroom uses mosaic which echoes the grey tones of the concrete, with matte and gloss finishes used to play with the reflection of the north facing windows. In fact, all window openings have reveals formed by the walls folding into them, which increases the light refraction coming into the rooms.

I still get Crayola, but it’s interesting to see this more organic shape, based on a local traditional of drying hops, used as a home.

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Arch Daily