Victorian Mews House - Retrofit & Reinvent
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Entrance to Architects studio showing original cast iron column and cobblestones. (Phase I - studio)
Sanya Polescuk Architects Download Original
Victorian mews house and coach-and-horses stable now accommodating an architect's studio and masionette
Originally a coach-and-horses stable with coachman’s quarters and hayloft on top, this Victorian mews house emerges, after a 2-phase retrofit, as an architects studio and spacious light-filled maisonette.
Since its original configuration as the ultimate work-live unit of the 19th century, this Belsize Park property has changed hands and spatial arrangements a number of times. From the mid-20th century the original logic began to erode with living and working areas gradually merging throughout the floors; the result being cramped cellular rooms, poor services, and inadequate working conditions.
To improve the property, SPA approached the project with two main objectives:
1. Raise the quality of accommodation by referring to the original spatial arrangement – i.e. workspace on the ground floor, sleeping and bathing quarters above and well-wrapped living/eating/cooking on top.
2. Significantly reduce the building’s carbon footprint by “Wrapping up Warm”, ventilating, and generally following the Code for Sustainable Homes, Level 4, along with reclaiming existing items from site – i.e. timber paneled doors, painted SW boarding, heating elements, etc.
Data
- Begun: Mar 2011
- Completed: Aug 2012
- Floor area: 185m2
- Sector: House
- Total cost: £240,000
- Tender date: Feb 2011
- Procurement: Traditional JCT Minor Works
- CO2 Emissions: 25.8kg/m2/year
- Address: 8 Belsize Court Garages, Belsize Park, London, NW3 5AJ, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Sanya Polescuk Architects
- Client: Tom Lloyd
- Structural engineer: Michael Chester and Partners
- Main contractor: AJD Building Contractors (UK) Ltd.
- Main contractor: A&I Construction Ltd.
Suppliers
- Wood fibre insulation: Steico Natural Building Products
- PIR insulation: Celotex
- Solar water heating: Enviko Renewable Energy Solutions
- Architectural doors and glazing: Isaacs Glass Co Ltd
- MVHR ventilation: Vent-Axia
- Triple glazed windows: Natural Windows Ltd
- Thin double glazing: Histoglass Ltd
- Rooflights: Velux