London · Est. 2005
Modern Detached
A four-bedroom family house in a suburban street: two interlocking volumes — a serrated brick house and a charred timber slat insert — around a brass stair and a single circular skylight.
Two volumes, locked together.
The site is a suburban plot in Harpenden, in a street of pitched-roof brick houses. The brief was a four-bedroom family home that read as part of its street from the front and opened generously to the garden behind.
The plan is two interlocking volumes. The first is a brick-and-tile "house" that mirrors the local form and holds the cellular rooms — bedrooms, bathrooms, smaller spaces. The second is a charred timber slat insert that carries the more open, more public rooms: the double-height porch at the front, the long living and dining space at the back. The two slip past each other on plan.
A brass stair rises up through a luminous central hall, lit from above by a single large circular skylight. North and south façades carry brick fin details that give the brick volume depth; polished concrete floors run from the kitchen out to a terrace with a bespoke elliptical dining table.
RIBA East Award and Brick Award, 2017.
"The brick volume runs the street. The timber insert runs the garden. The stair runs through both."
Studio
What it’s made of.
- Serrated red stock brick Signature exterior façade (protruding-relief profile)
- Charred shou-sugi-ban timber slat Signature insert-volume cladding
- Brushed brass Signature stair balustrade and vertical screen
- Saturated yellow-ochre matt paint Interior accent wall
- Matt-black painted joinery Dark feature wall
- Honed dark charcoal stone worktop Kitchen worktop
- Pale large-format porcelain floor tile Open-plan flooring
- White matt-lacquered MDF Kitchen island and tall units
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