Project Description
This contemporary new-build dwelling, on the site of a double garage in North London, met the clients brief by providing a 3-bedroom home over basement, ground, and first floors. The building fills the footprint of the compact site and is a realisation of a complex and innovative design process to accommodate flexible but practical living spaces within constrained boundaries.
Externally the bold black brick and charred larch cladding contrast with the context of the conservation area; standing confidently on the street, Darling House’s idiosyncratic and daring style serves to enhance the context of the street scene around it.
Once beyond the front boundary wall and through the small forecourt, you enter a home for urban living. The black brick continues inside, and a muted material palette of soft greys and birch-faced plywood is introduced. This palette of materials continues throughout the house, employed from the bathrooms through to the structural glulam beams at first floor. Natural daylight, pulled into the home from high level, casts shadows and reflects over materials, finishes and spaces. The complexities of maximising natural daylight within the dwelling inspired the initial design concept; with patent glazed skylights, internal walk on glass, lightwells, and floor to ceiling windows ensuring wherever you are in the home you are connected to the outside. On a relatively restricted budget the practice produced bespoke kitchen, bathroom, and staircase designs, enabling a single coherent interior and exterior architectural design language to prevail.
This project, which took 23 months to build, demonstrates that with support from local planning authorities, and confidence and trust placed upon the architect by the client, infill sites like these can be developed into bespoke architecture gems. Across London, sites like this sit dormant as we continue to work to meet the continued demand for housing in the capital.