High Sunderland Uses Glass, Timber and Bernat Klein's Colour as Structure

The 14-by-five-bay plan sits on a concrete raft beneath a flat roof. Makore framing establishes an eight-foot module; clear plate glass opens rooms to woodland, while vertical timber and coloured vitroslab panels mark living, sleeping and service zones. Yellow and green glass interrupts the apparent neutrality of the grid.

Inside, a sunken living area gathers around a double-sided grey marble hearth. Travertine and tile meet a polished obeche ceiling; panels of indigbo, rosewood and walnut hide doors to bedroom suites. The house feels open because circulation is compressed, not because every space is exposed.

• Structure: makore timber frame on an eight-foot module
• Interior focus: sunken living room and double-sided grey marble hearth

Klein commissioned the house in 1956 after seeing Womersley's Farnley Hey. A textile designer and prominent figure in the Borders art community, he designed, dyed and wove the fabrics throughout High Sunderland. His colour enters glazing and surfaces as part of the architecture rather than removable decoration.

The brief also combined home and commercial meeting space. A grid allowed later adaptation, and a 1982 studio addition partially filled the former courtyard and pond. The building's importance lies in that working partnership: Womersley's modular discipline gives Klein's material experiments a precise frame.

• Client and textile designer: Bernat Klein
• Original programme: family home plus commercial meeting space

Fire and weather damage in 2017 required Loader Monteith to repair a remarkably intact but vulnerable building. The practice added a warm roof, upgraded insulation and wiring, and worked with joiners to retain original fittings and interiors. Historic Environment Scotland lists the house at Category A, its highest national category.

Our verdict: High Sunderland is among the best subjects in RIMOWA's house series because the engineering, textiles and restoration can all be read in the photographs. 'See-Through House' is memorable but incomplete. The real achievement is control—what opens, what disappears into timber, and how a strict grid makes a relatively small house expansive.

• Heritage status: Category A listed exterior and interior
• Restoration principle: improve performance without erasing Womersley's grid and Klein's surfaces