Tim Ross

Susan is the sort of rock.

She worked actually for so long in the practice with him

And so many of their journeys and their travels and their visits to craftspeople all over the world, whether it's to a tilemaker in Japan or an Italian ceramicist or a glassblower in Murano in Venice.

Susan's there.

She's part of this.

So although, of course, John is the architect, the house is absolutely theirs in every way.

It has been chosen by them themselves.

not by him, and he's the great orchestrator here, but it is a joint.

Their life seems to me to be one huge joint project.

It's a really interesting idea that you can be driving something, but you can't do it alone.

There's this great moment, this beautiful, beautiful profiled handrail, which is sitting atop this ceramic terracotta balustrade.

And the profile is like slightly dished.

He's saying, oh, that's just going to be the best marble run.

You know, I asked him what happens when the grandkids come over and they discover that.

Because at the bottom of the staircase, there's a terracotta floor.

So the marble would kind of hit the floor and crack a tile, you know, which wouldn't be so good.

And John just said, yeah, I'm just going to, I think I might kind of design some kind of billiard kind of corner pocket to go at the bottom of something.

And that's the point.

He gets an idea in his head and he makes the most beautiful object out of it that deals with the situation.

The house is full of that.