Thirteen years ago, artist Ryan Gander and his then-pregnant wife, Rebecca, who runs a child-protection charity, decided to swap London life for a home near the Suffolk coast and countryside. The couple’s list of requirements was long: they had a dream of living in a red-brick house in a town with a train station, near the beach and Rebecca’s family – and, as Ryan says, “We also needed somewhere with loads of space for my wheelchair and a lift. Our choice was limited!” But, as our latest My Modern House film reveals, their boxes were ticked with Red House. Watch to find out why…

During its two-century lifespan, Ryan and Rebecca’s Georgian home in the market town of Saxmundham, in Suffolk, has been a department store, a B&B, an artist’s studio and a school. “The teacher would sit where I sit in my office next to the fireplace,” says Ryan. Having grown up in suburbia, he had always romanticised living in an old house set among a rural landscape, with a lots of character and a rich history, which is exactly what he and Rebecca found. But old houses also tend to be higgledy-piggledy, with lots of nooks and crannies that can be difficult to navigate in a wheelchair. “It was a rabbit warren of little rooms,” says Rebecca, recalling its former layout.