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Architects: Child Graddon Lewis
- Area: 117 m²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Anthony Coleman
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Manufacturers: AutoDesk
Text description provided by the architects. Triangle House is London-based practice Child Graddon Lewis’ refurbishment and extension of a small infill site in Kentish Town, London, transforming a gloomy and disused small office into a naturally lit, 3-storey house. The design has been meticulously composed to embrace the triangular footprint and existing character of the site, creating a building that makes efficient and functional use of space and natural light. To achieve this, the scheme adopts a split-level internal arrangement with a higher front level and lower rear level. This enabled the creation of valuable amenity space in the form of a southeast-facing, private terrace just below the roof level. At the front, a semi-enclosed courtyard serves as a private front winter garden – setting the main entrance away directly from the street. This intermediary space also provides ample room for cycle storage.
Internally, the ground floor level is open plan with the kitchen and living spaces lit by natural daylight entering via a large glazed roof at the front end of the plan and the new secondary skylight located at the rear. The first and second floors comprise a total of 3 bedrooms, all designed to exceed London Plan standards with en suite and bathroom provision – accessed via a stair core that wraps upwards through the building, eventually leading to the aforementioned roof terrace. Externally, the form detail and scale complement the street elevation, while ensuring the building enjoys a unique character in its own right. Anthracite paint is utilized to highlight the entrance, alongside the pilasters on the external wall. The dental course brickwork employed in the parapet detail is an understated yet physical reference to the history of the neighboring Victorian factory building, which from 1840 until 1965 was the proud home of Claudius Ash & Co. – formerly the largest manufacturer of false teeth in Europe. Architect’s View: Triangle House is a contemporary extension of a converted Victorian warehouse located in Kentish Town, London. Challenged with a constrained urban site and a triangular footprint we sought to increase the existing height, creating a more efficient use of the site while being guided by the decorative elements of the neighboring building.
The proposal evolves around extending the existing one-story side unit of the Victorian warehouse upwards to continue the elevation along the overall site, providing a new three-bedroom, five-person residential home. From the very beginning, we set this project to be an ambitious showcase of creativity with meticulous attention to detail, while being sympathetic to the conservation area the site sits within. Referencing the Victorian warehouse's window details was key in creating a holistic, contemporary extension of the elevation, from the number of window panels to the vertical and recessed brick placement. The dental soldier coursing also alludes to the warehouse’s previous use as a false tooth factory. To tie back to the neighboring elevations with the existing levels we created a split-level plan, with the rear of the plan sitting lower than the front. This allowed for a south-facing roof terrace to the rear of the site. To preserve the character of the existing gable end, we stepped back into the circulation zone. This break in the elevation allowed the transition from traditional to contemporary to be harmonious while using zinc cladding to enhance this move.
Materiality - The former factory building, 5-8 Anglers Lane, adjacent to Triangle House, has beautiful original brickwork and detailing in its facade. We wanted our new proposal to be an understated modern addition that is still connected with the industrial history of the site. We felt that brick was the right choice for the main material in the facade, but it needed to distinguish itself from the warehouse building. The Kingston Ebony brick selected had a crisp, flat aesthetic which combined with a dark grey mortar created a monolithic effect. This emphasized the large industrial window proportions and allowed the brick detailing to create depth and subtle articulation in the elevation.
