The project is a result of a strong sensibility between the lived-in and the surrounding built environment and of a desire for re-conceptualising living space in a not-traditional way and for exploring typological hybrids.
The two uses, live and work, are deliberately separate and their spatial organisation different. The studios extend on the ground floor reaching, at the back, a shared private courtyard; with little outlooks they have an internal vernacular nature and a meditative essence.
The living space holds a central position and, through a series of framed views, aims at connecting internal living spaces with its urban surrounding: the Church, the butterfly Roof-scape, the Workshops.
The house’s composition seeks to mediate between the two very different neighbouring typologies: the Victorian house and the industrial units; hence the translucent circulation core, designed as an extrusion of the Victorian house side wall, forms a spacer between the build and the Victorian residential dwelling.
The scheme uses the adjoining architecture as a context for orientation, as well as a basis for finding its own exploratory structure. Ever so slightly reminiscent of the industrial workshops on other side of the project, the façade consists of seemingly stacked cubical shapes rhythmically articulated. Unlike the front, the rear elevation is a composition of large blank elements and a series of stacked volumes and articulated openings. The project is a low carbon residence designed and constructed using pre-manufactured cross laminated timber system. The elevation is wrapped in a dark timber cladding a modern application of the ancient Japanese art of burning timber. Simultaneously the two strong bricks elements: the side wall and the chimney bring weight and enhance weightlessness; they bring the time component to the project, set as ruins of a recent past, memories of the place. Colours and reflections, natural and high quality finishes add sophistication to the interiors.