![Forest Glade House / Hesselbrand - Interior Photography, Countertop, Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5f98/7f59/63c0/1782/cd00/064b/medium_jpg/%C2%A92020_Hesselbrand_-_Forest_Glade_03.jpg?1603829564)
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Architects: Hesselbrand
- Area: 210 m²
- Year: 2020
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Manufacturers: Flos, Lehni, Orluna
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Lead Architects: Martin Brandsdal, Magnus Casselbrant, Jesper Henriksson
![Forest Glade House / Hesselbrand - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5f98/7f10/63c0/174d/8a00/0484/medium_jpg/%C2%A92020_Hesselbrand_-_Forest_Glade_01.jpg?1603829493)
Text description provided by the architects. Architecture firm Hesselbrand have completed a family house in east London designed for working and entertaining from home. The project is the first to be completed in a series of houses designed by Hesselbrand that re-imagines the traditional terraced house for contemporary life. Both floors of the house have been strategically rearranged by creating new openings, separations, and a large side extension on the ground floor. This makes the rooms of the house connect directly instead of through a corridor to allow for unlimited ways to move around the house. A new passage is opened from the bright front living room, leading you through a dark ochre coloured library into the new kitchen.
![Forest Glade House / Hesselbrand - Interior Photography, Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5f98/7eab/63c0/174d/8a00/0481/medium_jpg/%C2%A92020_Hesselbrand_-_Forest_Glade_02.jpg?1603829391)
In the kitchen, white-painted concrete blocks and steel columns form a sharp contrast to the existing house, and exposed concrete foundations on the floor draw a line of where the old wall used to be. At the back of the room, a large steel-framed window completes the passage by framing a view of the new garden room underneath a black painted timber pergola. Each space in the house is given its own spatial quality; bright, dark, wide, narrow, and so on.
![Forest Glade House / Hesselbrand - Interior Photography, Windows, Beam](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5f98/8042/63c0/174d/8a00/048e/medium_jpg/%C2%A92020_Hesselbrand_-_Forest_Glade_07.jpg?1603829807)
![Forest Glade House / Hesselbrand - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Windows, Chair, Door](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5f98/8275/63c0/174d/8a00/049d/medium_jpg/%C2%A92020_Hesselbrand_-_Forest_Glade_10.jpg?1603830361)
When the character of a room is defined by its quality or atmosphere rather than its function, it becomes more flexible and open to interpretation. For example, one of the bathrooms has the character of a normal room with the only exception that there is a bathtub, whereas the other bathroom is tiled all over in a perfect grid as if one continuous waterproof surface has been wrapped around the whole room.
![Forest Glade House / Hesselbrand - Interior Photography, Bedroom, Sink, Bathroom, Bathtub](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5f98/8296/63c0/174d/8a00/049f/medium_jpg/%C2%A92020_Hesselbrand_-_Forest_Glade_11.jpg?1603830395)
The economic approach to the redesign of the plan, with its repurposing of existing spaces, can also be found in the use of materials. In keeping and re-using as much of the existing building as possible, the design is aimed at finding a new use for old materials. Bricks left from the demolition are re-integrated into new parts of the building and leftover block-work is turned into a new kitchen. The structural steel is left exposed and painted to match the existing moldings, forming a visual link between the old and new. This approach of re-purposing both plan layout and materials ultimately gives each room more purpose and character and the house becomes significantly richer in experiences.
![Forest Glade House / Hesselbrand - Interior Photography, Bathroom](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5f98/8100/63c0/174d/8a00/0495/medium_jpg/%C2%A92020_Hesselbrand_-_Forest_Glade_09.jpg?1603829990)