In the late '60s and early '70s, developers decided to plunk 538-square-foot boxes on stilts at Hampshire, England's Yacht Harbor, offering up a modular, mod take on the seaside cottage. Now, as when they were built, deckhouses are either beloved or belittled. They're rare enough to be coveted—they sell almost exclusively as pocket listings—and yet they're oft labeled "Portakabins on legs" or "caravans on stilts." "People either love them or hate them," says architect Paul Hinkin, whose deckhouse recently made it into the pages of Dwell. Inside Hinkin's place, the crispness of the home's 1965 design is smoothed and to the interiors, black-and-white effigies to midcentury mod. Inside: Arne Jacobsen Swan chairs, Marcel Breuer nesting tables, and an Eames chair and ottoman.
"Our house was totally unmodernized and in a pretty poor state when we finally got hold of it," Hinkin told Dwell. "The balcony frame had just about corroded away, the decking was failing, the cladding was shot, and there was no insulation." And so Hinkin and his partner, Chrissy Pearce, got to work. They "restored the fabric" of the place's steel frame, brought in new aluminum cladding, rebuilt the balcony, and added solar panels. Inside, they relied on a smattering of era-appropriate furnishings pulled together like they would a set from Mad Men. It's a lot of work for sure, but it's apparently all worth it: " The Deckhouses were well conceived, and it's amazing that nobody has redone it in the UK. It really feels as though the idea should be reused."
· An elevated deckhouse in England. [Dwell]
· All The Printed Page posts [Curbed National]