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Architects: Neil Dusheiko Architects
- Area: 170 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Jim Stephenson
Text description provided by the architects. Neil Dusheiko Architects' House of the Elements is a radical remodelling of a Victorian terraced home in London, creating a beautiful spa-like retreat in another otherwise ordinary urban setting. Bold spatial gestures, a focus on connections to nature, and also a sense of fun make this an exciting and highly unusual home. House of the Elements explores the concept of space as a living entity, where time is measured not only by human presence and daily rituals but also by the growth and nurturing of plants, and the passage of light throughout the day. The original house was built in the late 19th century, and from the street appears to be a typical late-Victorian terraced house. The front reception room – featuring its original fireplace and plaster mouldings - has been retained. Beyond this, however, original features dissolve and give way to an extraordinary transformation.
The owners, a young professional couple who work from home, were keen that the house – where they spend most of their time – should have a clear focus on wellbeing, while also incorporating inspiring spaces for socialising and everyday life. The client's Sri Lankan heritage, and the work of Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, informed much of the design approach – in particular, the use of plants to create a green verdant environment full of visual interest and textures, and spaces that flow into each other to provide light, natural ventilation and views.
Neil Dusheiko Architects opened up the existing structure to address the brief – carving into the interior with full-height voids and lightwells. This creates an emphasis on verticality, giving the interiors a more expansive sense of scale than the original. The architects addressed the cellular arrangement, which had made the rooms feel cramped and disconnected from each other, by opening up vistas between rooms and towards the garden and green elements. From the open plan ground floor living space it is possible to look upwards through the whole house, and towards one of a series of large rooflights that flood the spaces beneath with natural light. Balconies, landings and windows open onto the void – again helping to bring daylight deep into every room and opening up unexpected vertical and horizontal connections throughout the house. In the heart of the house, above a retained period fireplace that serves as a remnant of the home's past spaces, a specially commissioned artwork by SODA – an Italian artist based in London – rises through the void. This takes the form of a series of fractured geometric planes that move upwards through space, creating a play of light and shadow that changes hour by hour.
Throughout the house, Neil Dusheiko Architects' emphasis on connections to nature led to an approach that goes beyond simply blurring the boundaries between inside and outside. Alongside strong visual connections to the lush rear garden through full-height glazing to the kitchen or picture windows on the floors above, the design goes further with a double-height green wall that lines the enclosed side return. The green wall is placed under a large glazed skylight that offers the planted space the full spectrum of sunlight, with sun-loving species placed closer to the light and plants requiring more shade towards the bottom. A rainwater harvesting system - fed from wastewater from the skylight and supplemented with nutrients - supports this lush sensory feature that fills the space with natural colour and textures. The green wall emphasises connections with the garden beyond and provides pleasing contrasts with the crisp geometries and surfaces that characterise the home's interiors.
The green wall is also part of a wider design strategy that stimulates the senses through connections with natural materials. Natural timber has been used extensively throughout the home – most notably in the retained exposed structural timber frame, the deep walnut bath overlooking the green wall, and the charred timber cladding to the distinctive rear garden elevation. Exposed brickwork provides a tactile memory of the original house, and contrasts with lime-washed white brick walls and the cooler, dark colours used in the bedrooms to create a calm and peaceful private space. In the bathroom, the polished plaster walls use natural biopolymers extracted from castor beans – a natural, healthy and sustainable ingredient.
