Fab House

The starting point of the design was working on general principles of simple forms and exposed materials. Ten two-storey houses, faced in a grey Equitone cladding, play to an unashamedly Modernist aesthetic. While the choice of Equitone as cladding was not a given for the Fab House, it’s one of several key design choices that, having been tested successfully on the House units, were adopted here – in this case allowing services to be accessible behind a single removable panel. The cladding is detailed, with vertical panels staggered and punctuated by a narrower, textured strip between storeys, and a deeper, cornice-like one at the top. Each house is further delineated by a stepped-back panel between them. In all, this has the effect of proportionally balancing and grounding the façades, compared with those of the House units, where the grid of silver-grey panels suggests a metallic skin.

The sense of weight and solidity is underlined by the Fab Houses’ deep reveals – the cassette system and cladding together meaning the windows sit within walls with a depth of 500mm. The thresholds to each house are neatly delineated and formed with a stripped-back contemporary take on the suburban model: hedge (here a low herb one) and a square of lawn, with waste and recycling bins encased in chunky timber box structures running up between each pair of houses. 

Inside, the layout is predominantly open-plan downstairs. The kitchen forms a large alcove to the front off a single living space, into which the stair drops directly. At the back, full-height French doors lead out to a timber deck, in size and surfacing more terrace than garden. Ceilings are raised perceptually higher by exposing the timber joists of the module system, while white-painted, MDF-clad walls, full-height doors and blond timber floors are designed to keep the space light and clean and increase the sense of spatial generosity. 

A noticeable feature is the birch plywood stair – continuing the ‘exposed materials’ principle – which, together with the exposed rafters, gives a tactile, warmer feel to the interiors than in the House units. The stairs, with a skylight above, lead the eye up, animate the centre of the house and allow light to drop down into its depth.