Today it seems shades of the prison house and worse close in upon the growing child

Today, it seems, shades of the prison house and worse close in upon the growing child almost from birth. A steel bridge leads to a glass-brick bathroom tower, with a sunken hot-tub of Japanese cypress protruding from the flat roof The budget? Zero compromise; figure undisclosed.. Childhood was once associated with certainty and innocence No longer. Owners Andy and Sophie Earl bought the house in 1990 for pounds 230,000THE DECKHOUSEJohn Young's dramatic Thames Reach apartment sits at the top of the Richard Rogers Partnership housing scheme.

Completed in 1989, the 300 square metre temple to high-tech features suspended sleeping platforms. She wanted a nest that integrated living space with landscape - so he built this bizarre glass and steel structure in Sussex. The beak is the entrance, the tail is a south-facing conservatory and the wings fly over the bedrooms. The result is a long, thin split-level, two-bedroom house arranged around a double- height living space.

Bay windows, curved walls and light colours help create an impression of volumeWALLSIDEThis apartment in London's Barbican Centre (a residential and arts complex) was originally designed by architects Chamberlin Powell & Bon. It was converted into a contemporary family house by Brendan Woods last year at a cost of about pounds 35,000. The stunning, colourful design utilises German organic paints applied to MDF and also features a number of mosaics incorporated into the flooringEAGLE ROCKIan Ritchie designed this high-tech fantasy house in 1981, for the late botanist Ursula Colahan. The bedrooms form segments which radiate from a central core and a curved maple staircase winds up to a living area lit by a conical skylight. Architect Mark Lee paid pounds 30,000 for it, and spent four years and pounds 130,000 on restorationNIGHTINGALE HOUSEDesigned by architects Cullen and Nightingale, this compact, suburban north London villa was built in 1988 for about pounds 75,000.