High Street to Hidden House

The local High Street is characterised by flat shop fronts, dominated by graphics with no connection between street and interior. This flatness prevents a dialogue between the street and shops, it prevents pedestrians slowing down and gazing in. High Street seeks to create an active interface by allowing the pavement to cut into the interior providing the opportunity for the casual gaze. Its scale and relation to the street invites looking in, an exchange between the office and its locality. London’s High Streets need to re-consider how they can interact with local people to make them relevant.

Hidden House adjoins the office. Formally open space, bounded by two storey walls and with no street frontage. These constraints become the architectural opportunity. No street frontage, lack of daylight and no aspect to inform the proposal. Daylight is brought into the space through a 7 metre lightwell, bedrooms are 4 metres high. These volumes are organised such that the space itself is a luxury. The lack of view out informs the internal spatial organisation. Spaces overlap and connect across the lightwell, bedrooms connect into lightwells and further bedrooms. Living spaces view through bedrooms and out through skylights. This spatial overlap allows the programme of the house to interconnect.

Externally the house is slotted between existing buildings, articulated as a flat surface and faced in a silica carbide render. The flat façade is animated by a steel butterfly door, laser cut to allow light in and out. The façade is conceived as a mask, inviting the viewer without revealing the interior.