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Architects: Threefold Architects
- Area: 4150 ft²
- Year: 2013
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Photographs:Charles Hosea
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Manufacturers: Wienerberger, Chauncey, Fiore De Pesco, Ize, Mark Wilkinson, Piled Foundations with Concrete Superstructure, Velfac, Vitrine Systems
Text description provided by the architects. Threefold Architects have designed a large new build house on a generous plot situated at the end of an existing terrace of detached houses in Highgate. The site for the house is an existing garden screened from the surrounding houses and street by mature trees and planting to the perimeter.
The proposal seeks to maximise the connection between the wonderful secluded site and the ground floor spaces. Thus, the house is conceived as a garden house, two volumes at first floor floating above the sloped site supported on brick piers below and separated by a lightweight glazed double height atrium, which runs across the centre of the house. The atrium creates a dramatic central space whilst also bringing swathes of natural light into the centre of the plan.
Set against the slope of the site, the rear spaces are dug into the garden with views out across the rear lawn. Meanwhile, the spaces to the front open up to a south facing terrace. The main internal spaces open both to the garden on one side and to the light filled central atrium along the core of the house. A lightweight bridge and feature staircase provides access to the bedrooms at first floor level.
The scheme employs a simple palette of natural materials including exposed oak within the house, a nod to the mature protected oak tree on the site around which the plan is arranged. It also uses a dark charred brickwork to the heavy ground floor elements and a light textured white brick to the first floor volumes.
