What lies beneath: the smart home that wears its technology lightly

Hi-tech features concealed throughout this 50s seaside house in East Sussex make it highly energy efficient - and make life easier for its owners

Picture a tech-savvy home and you will probably envisage a slick, white cube where the blinds whirr up at a preset hour and sensors turn on the shower. But a smart home doesn't have to be robotic and flashy. "We wanted to use technology to make life easier," says Gigi Sutherland of the home she and her partner, Matt Sellers, redesigned in East Sussex. With walls clad in basic building materials, the mood here is far from futuristic. The rough and ready aesthetic has hidden depths, though, from concealed speakers and motion sensors to app-controlled energy and security systems.

The house dates from the 1950s and, while the building itself is not so special, it backs on to Camber Sands. "It was just a set of boxy rooms and two garages," says Sutherland, a stylist. "We wanted to join up the spaces and integrate the garages into the house." The pair rebuilt the interior from scratch. Walls are made from OSB, a type of chipboard, and plaster-like dark grey Artex. "It creates a tadelakt-style finish with a nice chalky texture," says Sutherland. The flooring is grey poured concrete.