property
It’s Gold for Red House
A speculative new build end-of-terrace house wins this year’s prestigious Manser Medal
Mike Gazzard Hon FRIBA
The Manser Medal, named in honour of RIBA Past President Michael Manser CBE, has become the UK’s most coveted award for bespoke new home design excellence. Conceived in 2001 to encourage innovation in house design, to show how social and technological aspirations can be met by intelligent design, the Medal winning projects are exemplars to inspire the wider house-building industry (
www.mansermedal.co.uk).
I
n September this year’s Medal, together with the £5,000 prize fund, was presented to 31/44 Architects
for their visionary
design for their client Arrant Land on a small brownfield plot in East Dulwich, south London, formerly occupied by a double garage and yard at the end of a typical London Victorian terrace.
The brief called for a contemporary design that would defy convention but successfully terminate the terrace and provide contemporary living accommodation. The building’s design addresses the complex geometry imposed by the kink in the road and the angled flank of the adjacent house. As the design evolved it survived inevitable negotiation at planning and the challenges of construction. Taking its name from the warm red brick, which is evident as a highlight brick in the existing terrace, but used here as the main building material to create impact, the resulting design achieves 137m2
of space on a small plot. This has
been achieved by lowering the ground floor and creating a split-level three-storey house in the space of the conventional two-storeys of its neighbours in the terrace. The principal architectural move on the
44
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main elevation was to appropriate the arched entrance of the terrace into a large window onto a double height hallway. In plan the unconventional ground floor is then “pushed and pulled”, creating a series of inter connected spaces, interspersed with courtyards that bring daylight and greenery into the plan.
As a practice 31/44 Architects share Arrant Land’s vision to create carefully crafted and detailed homes- realising the untapped potential of difficult sites, responsibly densifying the city whilst providing contemporary homes that meet modern lifestyle aspirations.
In awarding the Medal, Jonathan Manser, Michael’s son and Chief Executive of the Manser Practice, enthused : “Red House evidences what can be achieved when a speculative developer permits the architect to defy conventional practice and test ideas to achieve something quite unusual. That is why we considered it to be a worthy winner from what was a very competitive and challenging shortlist.”
Photography: Rory Gardiner
www.3144architects.com
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