Finlandia Hall

Finlandia Hall by Alvar Aalto

I traced the floor plan of Finlandia Hall as part of an exercise to re-visit some of the significant buildings and places which we have re-visited with our children. It is partly to record and learn for myself some of the subtleties that I might have missed, and also to make up for the loss of travel opportunities these last two years.

62 CAMDEN MEWS

I recently read an article about an architect who built his own house, on the weekends with his wife and friends over a period of three years. This is not an unusual event these days, but this was in 1962. The house challenged many of the planning and design conventions at the time; it was a manifesto of ideas ahead of its time - about ecology, sustainability and social responsiveness. Ideas which he would continue to develop in his later projects. I was so taken about his sensitivity and practicality, the richness of his drawings and the fact that he built it with his own hands - that I took it upon myself to re-trace some of his drawings. 

Though the house was resisted initially, the same authorities now place it in their Heritage listings (Grade II). The family continues to live there; the Cullinans.

A letter box let into the brick base allows the Sunday paper to be dropped directly into the adults’ bedroom.

The single space upstairs is more generous; glazed on three sides the open kitchen and stair are at the heart with the round dining table at one side and the sitting area at the other.

The first floor is entered by the roof terrace over the garage

The joists extend beyond the wall line, and are paired  with two columns, from which columns hang a continuous row of cabinets as well as a band of uninterrupted sliding windows

An interplay of  timber and glass hung beyond the building enclosure, extends the width of the interior space.

This is an extract from architectsjournal.co.uk - a lovely article from November 2015 about influential housing plans, by Teresa Borsuk (She is senior partner at the architectural firm Pollard Thomas Edwards, and was named Woman Architect of the Year by Architects' Journal in 2015)

House Plan: Teresa Borsuk on Cullinan’s 62 Camden Mews

6 NOVEMBER 2015  BY TERESA BORSUK

In the latest in the AJ’s ongoing series looking at influential housing plans, Teresa Borsuk chooses Edward Cullinan’s Camden Mews in London

As a student, I lived across the road from 62 Camden Mews and I heard Ted Cullinan give a talk about his house. 

Ted showed a few slides and I was immediately taken by the strong link between the drawings and the essence of the home. Of course one should expect that. But it is not just what was drawn but also what is evoked. The style and content of the drawings are carefully aligned with the process and product. They are at one.

The drawings are simple, clear and controlled

The house is efficient and logical. The drawings are simple, clear and controlled. They exude thoughtfulness, economy and charm. They have an enchanting quality. There are considered references to human occupation. Both plans and sections demonstrate the enormous value of space and its very careful and effective use. The party wall diminishes in thickness as it rises; the upper floor projects over the lower one and the rooms have been developed around modules of furniture. I remember Ted saying that the width of the house was determined by the length of a bed – or the equivalent of three kitchen units, a wall and a passage.

What is drawn also depicts the actual process of the self-build. (The house was built by the Cullinans over two years of weekends.)

Was this the first house in Camden Mews not to straddle its plot? The house counter-intuitively takes up half the site frontage and extends from front to back – this copes with two existing trees and allows for a long south-west facing elevation opening on to a first floor terrace, optimising aspect, outlook and amenity. The sections joyfully express this.

The house is now over 50 years old, it is grade II*-listed and still occupied by the Cullinans. The drawings continue to delight. Magical.

Edward ‘Ted’ Cullinan (1931-2019)

An architect who was an early proponent of sustainability and social awareness, as well as a master of ingenious design. A modernist by training and inclination, he was also intensely serious about architecture’s wider social and environmental responsibilities and how they shaped the processes of design and relationships with users. He was also a generous and respected teacher of architecture. His commitment to these principles throughout five decades in practice was recognised with the award of the RIBA royal gold medal in 2008. He was also made a CBE in 1987, a Royal Academician in 1989 and a Royal Designer for Industry in 2010. Described as a “practising architect”, he remarked drily: “I cherish that word. I’m always practising. And one day might even get there.”