Year: 2007
Contract value:

The brief asked for a modern mews house to replace an uninteresting house in a charming mews with a mixture of old and new buildings. The clients own a 5 storey Georgian house which faces Highbury Fields just opposite the mews house. The idea was to form a new house which could be used by the clients’ son or possibly for their own use so the design had to be fairly flexible. An open plan design was envisaged incorporating the kitchen and dining on the ground floor, with the living room on the first floor with a large terrace facing the garden, and with two bedrooms on the second floor. A timber-clad box forming the entry lobby floats above the ground so that it does not affect the large plane tree in the front garden. The idea of this object in timber is to form a close relationship with the plane tree as it tries to reach it. The penetrations to the front elevation are reasonably small. However, there is a large translucent panel right across the elevation at ground floor which allows light through without visual connection to the inside. The elevation remains very simple and low key. The main material is wire cut dark brown brick with a smooth,, square face and a slight sheen.. The dark brick is in keeping with the overall brown look of the elevations along the mews. Opposite the entry point there is a large unit which creates the end to the entry hall and interrupts the full view to the rear which only gets discovered by going to either side of the unit. It is at this point that the impact is revealed of a two storey high room, with double height glazing to the rear elevation, as well as the jutting out of the first floor slab through the double height glazing panel so as to form a terrace to the rear. The bedroom at the top is reached through a protected staircase and has a framed narrow view with a small balcony to one side