A Perfect Minimalist Concrete Home that’s Reinforced Metal Bar free
The industrial look is a design that is heavy sought after nowadays for projects like cafes and restaurants because of its cost efficiency and its flexibility. This look allows the designer to make the project as stiff or as flowing as they would like as long as they complemented the concrete with the right materials. It isn’t often that you see a house making use of this design and when you do, there are usually a lot of problems the house encounters like the constant cracking of the concrete floor and many other maintenance issues. Fortunately, with the creation of the Concrete House in East Sussex by Realrich Architecture Workshop (RAW) in close collaboration with the owners of the home, Adrian and Megan Corrigall, these industrial designs look like they have a chance to grow further in popularity for residential projects as well.
The Concrete House project was actually completed in early 2019 and considering how well designed it was for an industrial-looking home, I believe that it has not gotten the credit it deserves. It isn’t a huge space but that was intentional because the owners of the house wanted a home that would essentially just meet their needs. No more. No less. Despite the size of the house, it is still able to create different zones for the family and their visitors.
Concrete naturally makes things look confined which is why the house maximized the use of their floor-to-ceiling height windows as well as skylights to provide light during the day. When the sun goes down, their unique lighting fixtures give an entirely different but still homey mood to the home. This was not by chance as the Corrigalls particularly stated that they wanted to move away from light-filled spaces to create more intimate zones for their family and friends. They also gave more texture to all the concrete finishes by adding in just the right about of crisp plywood cabinetry and other vibrant furniture that brought more color and life to the spaces within the home and, looking at the photos, it is easy to say that they really attained that minimalist look which they desired.
This house is not only unique because of how the design showcased how the industrial look can work quite beautifully for house projects but also because it is the world’s first building constructed that did not need any reinforced metal bars. If you are a contractor or into engineering, I’m sure this feature amazes you as well because the purpose of those reinforced bars is to prevent the cracking you usually see in these industrially finished designs. Even if you installed more than enough metal bars, you are still not assured that these horrible and irritating cracks will not show up anymore but they were able to attain it with the Concrete House with the use of advanced Fibre Reinforced Concrete which was specifically developed by Cemex as durable anti-craking material.
This house is a great peg or inspiration for any residential projects you plan to work on or are currently working on because of several reasons. It highlights that the size of the house does not equate to the beauty and overall functionality that it can have. It also showcases how new construction technologies can make existing looks or designs easier to maintain and finally, it sheds light on what a designer and client can attain if they have great communication. From the start of the Realrich Architecture Workshop (RAW) and the Corrigall family’s working relationship, both parties made it clear that they didn’t want a dictatorial factor in their relationship. With that worry out of their way, they were able to voice out their needs and wants easily thus producing this house that anyone would be lucky to have.
