

Cliffhanger
The Manser Practice
: Godalming, Surrey
In 1962 young architect Michael Manser (1929-2016) designed one of the earliest steel framed houses in Britain, dramatically cantilevered over a hillside in Godalming, Surrey. Sixty years later, his son Jonathan Manser at The Manser Practice was approached by the new owners to undertake a major refurbishment of the house.By 2022, the self-built house had fallen into disrepair. Given its poor condition it could easily have been demolished and replaced with a new building. But it wasn’t. We convinced the client that a Retrofit and ‘fabric first’ approach was the right thing to do: bringing the house up to current standards while retaining its original character. This involved completely stripping the house back to its steel frame to allow structural repairs to be carried out and thermal breaks added to reduce cold-bridging. The energy efficiency was also improved by re-cladding and insulating the façade, replacing the original gas boiler and fireplace with air source heat pumps and underfloor heating, and replacing the existing single glazed windows with new thermally broken fixed glazing and opening façade vents. Internally, the house has been reconfigured so that it can be primarily lived in on one (upper) level, with a snug and spacious guest suite on the floor below. This level is accessed separately via a new distinctive external staircase, which was relocated from the centre to the side of the house to increase the size of the main living space, creating a link between the kitchen and a new external terrace.