STONECHATMEWS
Site Plan (1:500)
shared-space at the front and winter gardens to the rear with large rooflights flooding the interior with natural light. The interiors are infused with a bright, sleek and contemporary artistic design. The garages and forecourt have been upgraded and landscaped to accentuate the approach. Each of the new 3-storey homes are developed in response to the site constraints which have dictated the positioning of window and walls areas. The resultant massing has then been carved out to provide spaces on the exterior and the interior that endeavour to maximise on the potential for daylight and sunlight to reach into the dwellings, and to provide private and intimate spaces. The manifestation of this is in the provision of double and triple-height spaces enabling natural light to permeate into the central areas of each house. “We need more homes and that’s a fact. We need volume, light and character. We need liberated rules. We need imagination to unlock forgotten plots.” Roger Zogolovitch
When we were commissioned to look at the development potential for this backland site, hidden from the main street and occupied by a single storey brick-faced warehouse at the end of a shabby ‘avenue’ of tired garages, some imagination was required to visualise how this unloved space could be transformed into 3 stylish new-build contemporary homes creating a focal vista along a renovated mews. Within the context of a national housing crisis, and the increasing price and availability of land within the capital, utilising the most challenging sites has become a necessity. The impact of this introduces an additional range of design, planning and construction issues. From the limited geometry of the site, to party wall issues, loss of amenity, and with private roads to occupied garages allowing limited site access for construction, these types of projects are incredibility constrained. As designers, the focus has been on the challenges and possibilities that these constraints present. Our clients are a husband and wife, an artist and a journalist, and developing the design closely with them throughout the project has meant that the initial concepts and ideas have been carried through to completion. The outcome of these ideas has created a sculptural architecture emerging from the ground with large windows onto the mews, enclosed
The blend of sculpture and art runs throughout the interior spaces with neutral wall and floor finishes allowing individual occupants the opportunity to fashion their own choices of furniture and art, animating the neutral backdrop of each room. Polished concrete is the finish throughout the ground floor, and natural light from the rooflights above provides constantly changing reflections within the interior. The enclosed double height winter garden at the rear opens up and frames views of the sky above the high garden walls retained from the original warehouse structure. The bespoke kitchen designed by the architect and made by the contractor, has a large south facing window onto the private forecourt, and can be entirely closed when required with concealed pocket doors. A bespoke cantilevered white polished concrete and glass open riser staircase rises from the open-plan living and dining space as a simple sculptural statement connecting each floor in the gallery-like space. The invisible support structure of individual concrete treads provides an illusion of lightness and a focal point within each house. Three bedrooms are located at first floor, one of which opens partly onto the double height winter garden, providing additional views out over the garden and connecting to the living space below. The top floor accommodates the master suite and is open plan with a bedroom and study space looking out onto a private external terrace area, and with a ‘zen’ like master bathroom, which at one end is provided with a freestanding bath set in front of a fully glazed wall and a backdrop of bamboo, and at the other end, a walk in shower with a large skylight above.
Ground Floor Plan (1:150)