Output details

Walmer Road houses [Design of houses on Walmer Road, Holland Park, London]

Aims and objectives

The primary aim was to design and construct four houses around a courtyard, in which the owners, although living in close proximity to each other, have privacy and quietness between dwellings and in the spaces of the home. The houses are for life-long living with level access, in which ground floor rooms may be converted into bedsitting rooms, and are constructed to have a different sense of permanence and seclusion.

Each house has a particular geometry in its form and orientation, in a’ push me -pull you’ arrangement which maximizes the use of floor area across the development and offers each dwelling larger room sizes, a greater sense of space, and affords each room direct sunlight. The courtyard development is orientated towards south sunshine. The geometry reconciles sun angles, privacy and floor area, and enable secluded balconies to be formed, allowing light to penetrate deep into the plan.

Methodology

The research has been conducted through iterative processes conducted with the client, consultants, industry and trade associations over a four year period, tested on prototypes both full size and half scale.

Dissemination

This has taken place through the publication of the project and interview with Sutherland Lyle in a dedicated issue of AJ Specification (2007); the project has also appeared in Building Design (2006, 2012), Architectural Review (2011), and as a section in AD Reader entitled Manufacturing the Bespoke (2012). Lectures on the project were given by Peter Salter at the following universities: Cardiff, Edinburgh, Newcastle,Lincoln, University College Dublin, Kyoto Institute of Technology Japan, and the Architectural Association School of Architecture and the 2013 RIBA Suffolk Evening Lecture given at the Housing is Architecture Conference at Snape, Suffolk.

At the beginning of 2014 there is to be an exhibition held at the Architectural Association, accompanied by a book.