Originally Willards Cottage was a show house at a 1930s Ideal Home Exhibition when it was built to demonstrate the advantages of Canadian cedar-frame construction. When re-erected on a site near Godalming that was a perfect habitat for the butterfly the architect, Laurie Chetwood, wanted to transform it into something that would reflect its life cycle- so Butterfly House became a reality. There is a steel walkway leading to the house, enormous Kevlar winged canopies with red admiral markings projecting in all directions with tubes, pipes and cables festooned everywhere. The RIBA Award Judges described it as “an art installation as much as a house, wrapped around a largely unchanged building.” They concluded: “The architect deserves praise for the way that art and design have been integrated in this building. Innovation and experimentation are the key drivers behind the design vision and this has created a truly unique and different building”. Photography: Edmund Sumner (020 7501 6477) |
