PROJECT REPORT: SELFBUILD & CUSTOM BUILD PROJECTS
home office. Events post completion in late 2019 transpired to make that extra space even more useful than they could have imagined. Says Ronnie, “When Covid happened, the client emailed saying they considered themselves extremely lucky to have this substantial house, and to be able to work from one of the bedrooms.”
Home front
The clients wanted the front to look more typical of traditional London architecture than the more experimental rear, and avoid the minimal ‘white box’ approach of some recent local additions. Ronnie explains that the couple also wanted the look of an archetypal home: “Jude went back to her childhood and remembered when she had drawn a house on a bit of paper; we engaged with her on the idea of ‘what does a house look like’.” The designers, led by project architect María Lopez Mata undertook a study of Georgian architecture, “starting from proportions on the ground,” and created a “very ordered” front elevation. The large windows, equipped with solar control glass, feature detailing such as reveals that echo London Georgian properties, and the heritage inspiration enabled the designers to slightly conceal the pitched ‘black’ zinc roof behind the small parapet that runs around
the entire roof. “This meant we had real cohesion the whole way around the elevations, relating front to back,” says Hill. The leafy site posed a big challenge, having a steep front to back gradient, and the design addresses this by providing an entrance via an upper ground level, with a few steps down to a lower ground level once inside. The sloping driveway, which was precarious in winter, has been levelled off, and a new series of low steps edged with leafy garden beds welcomes visitors, aiding accessibility for the clients’ visiting parents, and meeting Part M requirements. The central atrium is the key design feature of the house, topped by a skylight in a protruding lightwell that brings the space to a 10 metre height, and alleviates the relatively deep plan enhanced by the play of light through the day. Hill says it was “the most efficient way to create the heart of the house, and a drama that you’re not expecting when you first enter.”
Rear guard action The clients “weren’t trying to push us on the space,” says Hill, meaning that they were happy to let the architects explore ways to enhance the living spaces by breaking up the volumes to the rear, and not simply fill in a certain section of the plot with accommodation. This
The central atrium is the house’s key design feature, with a skylight in a protruding lightwell
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ADF JULY 2021
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