214: The Bat and the Bird

This modest brick house in Forest Hill is contextually unobtrusive.  It sits rather quietly between its two neighbours of similar brick, causing no fuss, and raising no eyebrows.

Our proposal looks for the opportunity to make an incident.

The existing brick volume will be stripped to its essentials, and the interior reconfigured to invite movement and light.

An addition begins at the rear of the ground floor, spiralling upwards and over the roof, using the existing second floor as an anchor.

Interventions at the front of the house then speak to this dynamism by using existing components – bay window, arched door – as spring points for modifying the geometries and the experience of the building.

The Bat and the Bird both have their place.  The Bat is in a weighted mass in the depths of the house, a dark but welcoming cavern, while the Bird is lifted into a perch atop the roof, with light and delicacy at its perimeter.

More to come as this work develops.