© Will Scott
- Architects: Liddicoat & Goldhill
- Location: 121 Milson Rd, London W14, United Kingdom
- Structural Engineers: Lyons O’Neill
- Area: 185.0 sqm
- Project Year: 2014
- Photographs: Will Scott, Courtesy of Liddicoat – Goldhill
© Will Scott
The brief called for a variety of spaces, offering expansive settings for gathering, and inviting inner sanctums for moments of solitude or contemplation.This was all to be set within a house of sufficient stature and repose to address the massive mid-Victorian townhouses on all sides.
© Will Scott
The clients drew an analogy between their new house and a tailored suit – recognisable, elegant and simple when viewed as a whole, but revealing individuality and material opulence in detail.
Diagram
A house previously stood on the site but, was destroyed by bombing in WW2. Since then, the locality has been designated a Conservation Area and neighbouring buildings have acquired Rights to Light.Winning Planning Permission therefore involved delicate and protracted multilateral negotiation.
Courtesy of Liddicoat – Goldhill
A series of models were produced to develop the building’s complex, bevelled form and its stone and render façade. A selection of these studies were recently exhibited by the RIBA at the ‘Architecture Open’ Exhibition and the ‘Guerrilla Tactics’ event; they are now permanently on display at Portland Place.
Courtesy of Liddicoat – Goldhill
Despite the local sensitivities, the five bedroom house is neither a resurrection of the pre-existing building, nor an aggregation of responses to different legislative requirements. Instead, the project seeks to reconcile a new London house type, subtly differentiated from its forbears. Conceived as a series of layers receding from the street, the house’s façades are variously lifted, punctured or fanned open to allow light to the interior.
Plan
The street façade – in overlayed planes of loadbearing Roman- format brick, render and Carrara Arabescato marble – refers to its classic neighbours’ proportions. The massive treatment of the front part of the house is dissolved along the flank façade, which is cranked outwards to gather light, tracing a faultline in the urban grain. The sheer, brickwork wall gives way to a screen of stone fins that conceal sheer glazing behind.This barrier affords privacy and filtered light to both the occupants and their neighbours.
Courtesy of Liddicoat – Goldhill
These contrasting planes of striated, abrasive textures and sumptuous, textured stone are interrupted by tall, bronze- framed windows. Fitted with either sheer glazing or solid bronze ventilation panels and backed by internal shutters, they reveal the depth of the construction.
© Will Scott
Construction of the 185sqm, five-bedroom house will commence in January 2013, with completion due early 2014.
Sig Nordal 