Description

James Reginald Parr and Partners, 1967. 2-storey, roughly L-plan, Modernist house located on steeply falling ground within former garden grounds of Abertay House. Grey and pink brick with metal-framed windows. Full-height corner glazing to living area and study below. Timber canopy to heavy timber front door.

The interior, seen 2013, is largely unaltered and is characteristic of its period in its open-plan form and use of modern materials. Exposed brick walls to most interior spaces. Surfaces contrast white plaster ceilings with varnished teak panelling. Open-plan dining and living areas. Master bedroom, bathroom and second bedroom accessed by recessed sliding timber door off living area. Varnished teak fixtures and fittings retained throughout. Partition screen of pivoting timber slats between reception hall and dining area. Fitted cupboards to dining area. Brick plinth to stairs down to study/playroom and 3 further bedrooms. Fitted timber wardrobes and cupboards. Rear hall and utility room.

GARAGE: single-storey, flat-roof. Pink and grey brick. Varnished teak doors and canopy. Up-and-over door to road. Projecting timber canopy. Remote-controlled sliding timber door to W elevation.

Statement of Interest

3 Abertay Gardens, built in 1967, is an important, largely unaltered, late-Modernist house of the post-war building period in the region, designed by a major Dundee practice, James Parr and Partners. This private house is characterised by imaginative and precise modular planning. It has a largely intact interior scheme, unaltered plan-form, innovative design features, fixtures and fittings all brought together with the inventive use of space and light.

The house is built of brick and designed to fit a steeply sloping site within the former garden grounds of Abertay House (see separate listing). A plain, single-storey entrance elevation with a windowless brick frontage contrasts strikingly with double-height glazing to the rear, south-facing garden elevations with views across the River Tay to Fife. The increased availability of large sheets of glass after the war influenced house planning and the glazed expanses at 3 Abertay Gardens reflect this. Architect-designed Modernist private houses that survive in close to their original form are relatively uncommon in Scotland.

The paired-back, practical and fluid use of space seen at 3 Abertay Gardens defines many of the best houses of the 1960s period. Corridors are largely eliminated and the building also features oil-fired space heating in the basement, circulated through the house via floor-vents. As a result there is no fireplace for use as a focal point in the main living space.

High quality aluminium windows and doors were installed by the same architectural practice in 1999, replacing the original dark-stained timber. The door leading from the dining area onto the upper patio uses a similar pivot-point opening mechanism to the original door.

Productive and forward-looking client and architect relationships in Dundee and its environs after the Second World War led to the building of a small number of good quality Modernist houses in the area. 3 Abertay Gardens was built for Anthony Cusens, Professor of Civil Engineering at University of Dundee.

Other private houses by James Parr in the area include 95 Dundee Road, for himself, and 40 Camperdown Street. Other notable projects of the same period by the practice include the Head Office of the General Accident, Fire and Life Assurance Corporation in Perth, 1969, and the Dundee Fire Headquarters of 1967. James Parr and Partners were also known for designing flats and housing developments in the Dundee area during the 1970s.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17814104

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)