Putney

Testimonial:

In 2013 we where fortunate to be invited to stay with friends in their house in Falmouth, Cape Cod, Mass, USA.

 

While there, we where treated to a special twilight tour of a house belonging to the famous Bauhaus architect, Walter Gropius and his wife Isa, in Lincoln, Mass, USA.

Built in 1938, this house was built on a tight budget, as they had escaped Nazi Germany with nothing.

They first moved to London for three years.

Walter Gropius was invited to lecture on architecture at Harvard, USA.

 

A generous benefactor loaned them a piece of land on a hill above their orchard in Lincoln, Mass.

The layout of the kitchen and maids room in particular, was so similar to our own, and, the furnishing taste uncannily like our own.

We where inspired to create the 21^st century version in our own kitchen, with 2014 technology.

 

The architecture of Walter Gropius was unmistakably Bauhaus, clean lines, bold colours, well considered location of windows to make the most of the light.

However, the stamp Isa Gropius had made on this house was considerable. Isa was greatly influenced by Japanese art, textiles and design,

as are we.

 

The marriage of Bauhaus with Japanese simplicity of materials works incredibly well, the influence that Isa showed all round the house.

There was a small Japanese garden built onto the rear of the kitchen.

A small vase of red berries, very minimal, in the centre of the beautifully lit white dining table.

(Round, white table, similar to our own) the crockery was all matt stoneware, as is our own.

Loosely woven curtains.

 

The kitchen was built on a budget using white medical cabinets, black lino floor, black worktops, and black splash backs. Most of which came from catalogs, a very popular method of purchasing goods in the great spaces of the U.S.A. in the 1930’s.

 

We chose white minimal cabinets, floor units & wall units, with matt black floor and black plinths to the cabinets to make the floor space appear larger.

The furniture was not all one period, both Walter and Isa obviously had a great eye for design, the furniture, and art, represented exciting pieces from every decade that they lived in the house.

Chairs from the fifties, mobile form the sixties and on and on……………

This created a home, rather than a ‘set dressed’ piece of archicetcture.