"One year ago we lost our friend and colleague Ross Langdon in the most brutal of ways. Ross left behind a number of beautiful architectural concepts and schemes. We feel immensely honoured to have since been approached by a number of his clients with the request to help realise what was on his drawing board, whatever stage it may have been at. As any Architect would know, this is not always an easy task; we do our best to stay true to his ideas but at times feel like interpreters of rediscovered poetry with all the guess work that goes along with that!
Today we are happy to report that the first of these projects, Coppice Road Poolhouse in Kampala, has been completed. The project consists of the refurbishment and extension of a tiny garden house besides a swimming pool and its conversion into a self-contained studio apartment of a total area of just 54m².
Ross’ doubled the footprint of the house by extending it length-wise to the rear. And because this still didn’t create enough space, he added four little cantilevering timber pods sticking out of both old and new creating daybed and office nooks. The roof trusses over the existing building were exposed and the gable end glazed. Over the new part, the same structure was replicated but an additional vent roof added, a common theme in rural Ugandan coffee factories which were so close to Ross’ heart. Hardly surprising for an Aussie Architect, all timber work is made of Eucalyptus; front terrace and plinth are made of Butende clay bricks.
Photos posted here are still work in progress; we'll have some better ones soon.
The project turned out to be a wonderful example of a productive team effort between client, contractor and architect. All of us were Ross’ friends who came together with the resolve to completing this project in a way that would make him proud. Thanks to Hrishi, Maanan, Inder and everyone else who put his effort into this project.
Our thoughts are with the families of Ross and Elif."
- Felix Holland, September 21, 2014
