RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Located in a conservation area, this exceptionally large house manages to sit very comfortably on its site. The planning is sophisticated, with a deep plan that is flooded with light. The scale of the building is well handled, as is the massing of the forms of the house. It makes a beatiful family home.

Architect’s Comments:

The site sits in the St. Johns Wood Conservation Area, in a somewhat unusual triangular parcel of land. At the outset of the commission, the client family lived in a 19th century main house on the site, and also owned an adjacent small mews house fronting Abercorn Close. The two were separated by a six metre section of roadway within their ownership but open to the Mews. The client envisaged the demolition of both buildings and the linking of the two sites to create a new enlarged plot to accommodate the new house. Conceived in part as a secret house behind a garden wall, the scale and massing of the 57m long low build house is broken up to ensure that it is in part fragmentary, allowing the composition to dovetail effectively with the scale and diversity of the adjacent buildings. The composition when viewed from the Close cascades from its highest point to the horizontality of the street elevation in tune with general massing of the townscape. Internally, the family spaces flow into one another, separable by operable panels and sliding screens, whilst stairs -grand and discreet, link to both the upper levels and the top-lit subterranean pool.

Client's Comments:

In late 2000, after a rigorous selection process, we commissioned an architect to design a contemporary home for our family on the site of our existing house and garages in St. John’s Wood, London. We wanted to retain the garden and the relationship it had with our existing 19th century house, but to have a new house that was light, contemporary and open, with a logical integration between the rooms and the way we wanted to live. The brief for the house was complex and included the provision of formal living and dining spaces, a family room, large kitchen, 4 main bedrooms all with ensuite bathroom or shower facilities, a guest suite and maid’s quarters, a tv/children’s den, a 20m lap pool, steam room, utility room and garaging for two cars. The progression of the project involved considerable dialogue between us and our architect, and much development over many sessions. It has taken nearly six years to plan and build this project, but we have in the end a truly exception family house of unique design that maximises every opportunity that could possibly be gleaned from the project. It is a joy to live in and surpasses by a great margin, all of our expectations.