What Happened?

2015 was a very busy year for me. I bought a house in Cornwall and built a new studio. I haven't been posting so much during the year, so thought I would put some pictures up here now that represent what I have been up to. They are in the following categories: The Area; The Garden; The House and The Studio

The Area
The house is set on the edge of the Moor by a river. Its about 15 minutes drive from the north coast and about 30 mins from the south. The moorlands are all freely accessible for exploring on foot. I've found ancient forests, waterfalls, disused mines, stone age ruins and stone circles, even a dilapidated Airfield. There are also some secluded coves and beaches which are reachable only on foot

The Garden
The house is set in a secluded valley within about 5 acres of grounds. It is sided on half the perimeter by a large river, and there are several smaller streams and a waterfall. The garden never stops surprising me with its flamboyant seasonal cycle. Although there are a few houses nearby the garden isn't really overlooked, and there are views down through the valley and the forest where the river runs out to the sea

The House
The house itself was designed in 1960, in a style that can broadly be described as modernist mid-century. The architect was Ronald Simms, who had recently returned from America where he was studying the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Simms had been practising since the early 1950s, but this was his first and only residential design. There is an excellent article on him here, taken from The Architect magazine in 1960, which just predates my house. The house was commissioned and built in 1960/61 by the previous owner and fortunately it is in its original unmolested condition. However this means that from my point of view it is very much a work in progress, and I am trying to gradually renovate and restore it

The Studio
The house had a basement when I bought it that had been used as a garage and workshop. It had completely unfinished floors and walls, and the ceiling consisted of the exposed cantilever beams that support the room above. But it happened to be just about the same size (a little larger) than the studio I had in Hoxton, so it made perfect sense to convert it. I have posted a bit about the work that has been carried out during 2015, but not much. I thought I might do a running blog about each day's activities, but it was so time consuming doing the actual planning and building that I didn't get round to it. I will post some more stuff about the build later, but for now here are some pictures of the finished control room. There is also a live room and machine room which are not quite finished yet, but the main thing is the control room is all done and music work has very much commenced