View from garden to house at dusk

Residential — New-build

Wolseley Road

London — Highgate

Residential New-build Sustainable

Year

2018

Type

6 bed detached house

Size

410 sqm + 46 sqm garage

Scope

New-build with annex

Overview

A new-build family house in London

A new-build family house with annex, built around a new garden and lightwells on a steeply sloping site in Highgate, using a hybrid timber frame and concrete construction.

Freestanding bath with skylight over in master ensuite bathroom

Approach

The architectural response is driven by the key site constraints.

Glazed elevations to the east and north compensate for the buried, windowless elevations of the retaining walls.

Maximising light and views, the new garden also creates a valuable new focal point.

Excavate to create a new garden level, connecting with the street at its lowest point

The building is split into two key volumes — two pavilions in a garden — maintaining a sense of openness within a restricted site

Interconnections and overlaps — the upper level connects directly with the main street entrance, wrapping around the two volumes to frame a new lower garden space

New gardens, lightwells and green roofs aim to unify the two levels

Main entrance stone steps and garden flowering

Sliding folding screen of perforated metal panels separating living and drawing room

Dappled sunlight on polished plaster wall and glulam in living room

Guest cloakroom orange mosaic with oak shelf

Framing key spaces

Diagram of glulam frame bridging inside and outside — Through the new glulam frames, the natural timber structure bridges between inside and outside

View from entrance hall to living and horizon

Maximising daylight

Diagram of lightwells and rooflights — To bring light and air to the deepest parts of the site, three new lightwells have been created, as well as several rooflights — the cuts in the roof bring daylight into the building, despite the two southerly elevations both being buried

Solar study diagram — The solar study shows the impact of the skylights and clerestorey windows overhead, on a mid-March day

Materials

Stair detail, dinesen timber and balustrade

Drawing room and sliding folding metal doors

Drawings

Isometric drawing of the house — The six bedroom house is set into the hillside overlooking London. The site slopes considerably, with a 6.5m height difference from one end to the other

The building steps down in section, following the contours of the site. The upper floor, which contains the public reception areas, is primarily open plan. The lower floor contains the private spaces and the annex.

The focus of the house is the garden on different levels, and the long distance view to the north east.

Isometric section through dining and library void, and roof terrace

Sustainability

Two key elevations of the house are primarily earth sheltered, which keeps the structure low-profile whilst harnessing the heat of the soil, protecting the property and its inhabitants from temperature extremes.

A biodiverse green roof and air source heat pumps have also been installed.

Underfloor heating throughout creates a comfortable environment, at the same time minimising heat consumption.

Green roofs provide both ecological and visual amenity, aiming to improve the natural habitat that was there previously.

Construction

Below, the site has been excavated to reveal the piled retaining wall

Panoramic view of the site under construction

Glulam timber structure under construction

Project credits

Services engineerOCSC

Structural engineerPrice & Myers, Elliott Wood

Landscape architectDima Zogheib (concept), Jonathan Snow Design

Project managerMAC Consulting Ltd

General contractorStark Group

Sub-contractorsBerryrange Ltd (sheet piling), Constructional Timber (glulam), Openwood Ltd (rooflights), BDI Joinery, Focus Ceramics, Dinesen (floors), Optimum Contractors (steelwork), Stewart Landscapes