High Sunderland is a

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

house built in woodland in the grounds of the 19th-century Sunderland Hall, between Selkirk and

Galashiels Galashiels (; , ) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive history in the textile in ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

. It was designed in 1957 by

Peter Womersley Peter Womersley (24 June 1923 – 1993) was a British architect, best known for his work in the modern architecture, modernist style. He lived in the Scottish Borders, where a number of his buildings are located, although he worked on projects th ...

for the textile artist Bernat Klein and his wife Peggy, and completed in 1958. The interior was decorated with exotic woods, and with fabrics specially designed by Klein. The house, with its clear and coloured panes of glass within a wooden structure, and its woodland setting, has been described as like "a

Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He was one of the pioneers o ...

set within a

Klimt Gustav Klimt (14 July 1862 – 6 February 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement. His work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe. Klimt is known for his paintings, murals, sketc ...

". Womersley designed a separate studio for Klein in 1969, which was completed near the house in 1972. The strong horizontal and vertical concrete structure of the studio are reminiscent of

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

Fallingwater Fallingwater is a Historic house museum, house museum in Stewart Township, Pennsylvania, Stewart Township in the Laurel Highlands of Greater Pittsburgh, southwestern Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, i ...

. The house and the studio, two largely unaltered examples of Womersley's modular Modernist architecture, are separately listed in Category A, as "buildings of national or international importance".

Background

The house was commissioned in 1956, after Klein and his wife saw the Modernist Farnley Hey, designed by Womersley and built in 1954 south of

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

. Farnley Hey was awarded a

RIBA ''Riba'' (, or , ) is an Arabic word used in Islamic law and roughly translated as " usury": unjust, exploitative gains made in trade or business. ''Riba'' is mentioned and condemned in several different verses in the Qur'an3:130

bronze medal: it was given as a wedding present to Womersley's brother John, and is now listed at Grade II. Klein admired its rough stone walls and large windows, although the stone elements were omitted at High Sunderland to reduce costs. Its modular design has been described as a forerunner to Benjamin's Mount, a 1967 house by

Ernő Goldfinger Ernő Goldfinger (11 September 1902 – 15 November 1987) was a Hungarian-born British architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United Kingdom in the 1930s, and became a key member of the modernist architecture, Modernist architectur ...

Windlesham Windlesham is a geographically-large village in the Surrey Heath borough of Surrey, England, approximately south west of central London. Its name derives from the Windle Brook, which runs south of the village into Chobham, and the common suffi ...

and now Grade II* listed. The single-storey house was designed for a woodland site that Klein had acquired in the grounds of Sunderland Hall, an 1850

Scottish Baronial Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th-century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Reminiscent of Scot ...

mansion designed

David Bryce David Bryce Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE FRIBA Royal Scottish Academy, RSA (3 April 1803 – 7 May 1876) was a Scotland, Scottish architect. Life Bryce was born at 5 South College Street in Edinburgh, the son of David B ...

and now itself Category B listed. The estate lies near the confluence of

Ettrick Water The Ettrick Water is a river in Ettrick, by the village of Ettrickbridge and the historic town of Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. The water, a tributary of the River Tweed, is known also as the River Ettrick, often locally ...

and the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the River Tweed. The Tweed is one of the great salmon rivers ...

, south of

, where Klein had acquired a mill to make the fabrics that he designed. Womersley had himself moved to the

in 1957, where he built ''The Rig'', his home and studio in

Gattonside Gattonside is a small village in the Scottish Borders. It is located north of Melrose, Scottish Borders, Melrose, on the north side of the River Tweed. In 1143, the lands of Gattonside were granted to the monks of Melrose Abbey by David I of S ...

near

Melrose Melrose may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Melrose, Scottish Borders, a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland ** Melrose Abbey, ruined monastery ** Melrose RFC, rugby club Australia * Melrose, Queensland, a locality in the South Burnett R ...

, also Category B listed. A decade later, in 1969, Womersley designed a separate studio for Klein near High Sunderland. Strongly reminiscent of

, the studio remains one of Womersley's best-known buildings. High Sunderland and the Bernat Klein Studio are separately protected as Category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

s, the highest level of protection for a building in Scotland, for "buildings of national or international importance".

House

The main house is large, low rectangular building with a flat roof, constructed in Modernist style in a clearing on a sloping woodland site beside the A707 about north of Selkirk, looking east over the Ettrick Water towards the triple peak of Eildon Hill. It was originally intended for use as Klein's design office as well as his family home. The single storey structure was made from

Makore ''Tieghemella'' is a genus of the plant family Sapotaceae described as a genus in 1890. The wood of ''Tieghemella'' species is known as makore in the lumber trade. ''Tieghemella'' is native to western and central Africa. ;Species # '' Tieghemel ...

wood on a concrete raft, with 14 bays by 5 bays on a grid. The exterior bays are largely filled by clear plyglass glazing separated vertically by the wood structure, and horizontally by two white horizontal strips, a base course band with a higher clerestory band, and then topped by a white facia at the eaves with aluminium trim. The separate internal areas for living, bathing and sleeping are denoted by panels of

laminated glass Laminated glass is a type of safety glass consisting of two or more layers of glass with one or more thin polymer interlayers between them which prevent the glass from breaking into large sharp pieces. Breaking produces a characteristic "spider ...

(coloured vitroslab), with some bays filled with vertically boarded Makore. An area, 2 by 7 bays to the southwest corner, forms an open

car port A carport is a covered structure used to offer limited protection to vehicles, primarily cars, from rain and snow. The structure can either be free standing or attached to a wall. Unlike most structures, a carport does not have four walls, and us ...

. An entrance screen on the south façade has five horizontal panels containing tile mosaics added later by Bernat Klein. An open area left as a courtyard and pond at the northeast corner was later filled in. The boundary of the property is marked by

drystone wall Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. A certain amount of binding is obtained through the use of carefully ...

s and gateposts. The

open plan Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan that makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices. The term can also refer to landscaping of ...

interior retains its original design scheme, with bespoke fitted furniture and light fittings, travertine and tiled flooring, and ceilings of polished

obeche ''Triplochiton scleroxylon'' is a tree of the genus ''Triplochiton'' of the family ''Malvaceae''. The timber is known by the common names African whitewood, abachi, obeche (in Nigeria), wawa (in Ghana), ayous (in Cameroon) and sambawawa (in Ivory ...

wood. The décor includes textiles were specially designed, dyed and woven by Klein. Space was maximised by reducing circulation spaces, with cupboards installed as dividing walls with flat concealed doors, using

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...

and exotic woods such as idigbo and

rosewood Rosewood is any of a number of richly hued hardwoods, often brownish with darker veining, but found in other colours. It is hard, tough, strong, and dense. True rosewoods come from trees of the genus '' Dalbergia'', but other woods are often ca ...

. The main living space has a sunken floor. An open plan playroom with sleeping alcoves was designed to be divided into separate bedrooms later. The modular design was intended to permit further extension: part of the courtyard and pond were used to create an office space when the separate studio building was sold in 1982. Buildings taking inspiration from High Sunderland include Benjamin's Mount, designed by

in 1967 and now Grade II*, which also adopts a modular flat-roofed open-plan design, but has two separate wings. The house was listed in Category A in 2007. After Klein died in 2014, the house was marketed for sale in 2015, at an asking price of £795,000. Klein's daughter, Shelley Klein, published a memoir, ''The See-Through House'', in 2020. In 2017, the house was bought by architecture and design historians Juliet Kinchin and Paul Stirton. The property was damaged by a fire which occurred during the renovation period. However, restoration work was carried out by Glasgow-based architects, Loader Monteith, who upgraded the structure with invisible sustainable upgrades to insulation and wiring, as well as restoring with considerate care and attention the original fittings and interiors. Loader Monteith's work was awarded the 2022 AJ Retrofit Award, as well as a 2022 RIBA National Award. In July 2022, the property was shortlisted for the

RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award The RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award is an annual architecture prize in Scotland. Organised by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), it was named in memory of the awards founder and patron, Andrew Doolan. Establ ...

. File:High Sunderland, General View.jpg File:High Sunderland.jpg

Studio

The studio is separate rectangular two-storey building, also in Modernist style, on a sloping woodland site about south of the main house. It was designed in 1969 and completed in 1972. Its design incorporates elements of

, combining the horizontal modular glazing adopted by Womersely in the main house at High Sunderland and for his own house at The Rig, with the concrete elements that Womersley used at the

Gala Fairydean Gala Fairydean Rovers Football Club are a Scottish association football club based in the town of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. The club competes in the , after joining from the East of Scotland Football League in 2013. At the same time t ...

stadium at

Netherdale Netherdale is a sports complex in Galashiels, Scottish Borders, consisting of two adjacent stadiums used for rugby union and Association football, football. The rugby ground is the home of Gala RFC and was formerly used by the professional Border ...

in Galashiels and his 1963 Nuffield Transplantation Surgery Unit at the

Western General Hospital The Western General Hospital (often abbreviated to simply ‘The Western General’) is a health facility at Craigleith, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian. History The hospital was designed by Peddie and Kinnear and opened as ...

. It was constructed using deep horizontal concrete beams supported by four main concrete columns, and with glazing in anodised aluminium frames. It stands on a brick plinth, with an overhanging upper floor, and a central brick service core extending through to the flat roof. A concrete bridge provides access directly to the upper floor from the rising ground to the north. The open plan interior studio is arranged on two floors around the stairs and services in the central brick core. Kitchens were added to both floors in 2006. The studio won a

award in 1973 for its design and use of materials, and the same year it also won the Centenary Medal of the Edinburgh Architectural Association. It was listed in Category B in 1994, and upgraded to Category A in July 2002. With Klein's business in financial difficulties, the studio was sold in 1982 and used by Borders Enterprise for a short time as Textile Information Centre. It was sold to a private owner in around 2000, and permission was given in 2006 to convert the studio to residential use, including adding a new structure to the roof, but it remains unused and in poor repair. It has been on the Buildings at Risk Register since 2002. File:Bernat Klein Studio 2010-06-10 16.52.50.jpg File:Bernat Klein Studio 2010-06-10 16.55.37.jpg File:Bernat Klein Studio 2010-06-10 16.56.52.jpg File:Bernat Klein Studio 2010-06-10 16.53.27.jpg

References

High Sunderland, Galashiels, including boundary walls and gate piers, LB50862
Historic Environment Scotland
High Sunderland, The Studio (Former Bernat Klein Studio), LB19484
Historic Environment Scotland
Bernat Klein Studio
Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland
High Sunderland
Dictionary of Scottish Architects
Bernat Klein Studio, High Sunderland
Dictionary of Scottish Architects
"Peter Womersley's High Sunderland house goes on sale for first time"
The Architects' Journal, 18 August 2017
High Sunderland
canmore.org.uk, Historic Environment Scotland
Bauhaus with a British Twist: Peter Womersley’s High Sunderland
Mid-Century Home, 8 October 2017
Chronicles of Modernism: the history of Klein House, Peter Womersley and Bernat Klein’s paragon of mid-century design
The Modern House
Bernat Klein Design Studio
preserving-womersley.net
A Borders Icon: Peter Womersley's Klein House
Lyon & Turnbull, 11 April 2018
"'I wanted doors I could slam': Growing up in a see-through house"
BBC News, 29 April 2020 {{Coord, 55, 34, 28, N, 2, 50, 12, W Houses in the Scottish Borders Category A listed buildings in the Scottish Borders Modernist architecture in Scotland

Background

House

Studio

See also

References