South Hill Park
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Will Pryce (website) Download Original
Residential
This scheme is mostly about the cross section. The usual strategy of connecting house and garden is taken, but unusually the scheme connects two floors rather than one. This is done by taking away a section of the floor between ground and first floor, and thus creating a large double height space. This is then fully glazed and offers wide open views from both levels out into the garden
We brought some of the house up to the garden, and some of the garden down to the house. Cutting down and stepping the garden avoids the balustrade cutting across your view, and the steps are utilised for seats and planters. An area is left outside the back door to give enough room for sitting outside, and the planters are carefully considered to break down the scale of the surrounding walls and hence get away from the sense of being too ‘deep’.
The interior space is stepped up from the kitchen so that the dining space is on the same level as the exterior. The sight lines were carefully drawn to make sure that good views from the lower kitchen were not interrupted. Opening up to the upper level makes this interlocking space the focal point of the house, and allows all the living spaces to have a relationship with each other – whilst big doors allow the upper front living room to well and truly separated to keep TV noise separate. The lower front living space is used as a play space and will become the more informal reception when the kids are older. – All in all a family space.
Data
- Begun: Jan 2009
- Completed: Oct 2010
- Floor area: 152m2
- Sector: Residential
- Total cost: £136,000
- Funding: Private
- Tender date: Dec 2009
- Procurement: JCT
- Address: 9 South Hill Park, London, NW3 2ST, United Kingdom
Professional Team
- Architect: Paul Archer Design
- Project architects: Emily Burnett, Richard Gill
- Client: Jessica & Nick Turner
- Structural engineer: Hardman Structural Engineers
- Main contractor: B & A Woodworking