Provost Road House : By Eldridge Smerin ~ HouseVariety

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Provost Road House : By Eldridge Smerin

Belsize Park, London, England
Eldridge Smerin
Post By:Kitticoon Poopong

Photo © Courtesy of 1st-option

Eldridge Smerin’s projects for Selfridges and Villa Moda possibly led to the design of this house for a director of a fashion company and on to the design of its London headquarters. When architects failed to obtain a consent for a new building on this leafy triangular site, the former nursery garden to the estate, Eldridge Smerin was asked to suggest a new design approach to secure a consent for a family house creatively extending the existing proto Arts and Craft house.

Photo © Courtesy of 1st-option

The exterior of this house appears to have been faithfully restored but in fact has been cleverly remodelled to create a generous double height entrance space leading to bedrooms and bathrooms for the family and guests. The extension forms a protected courtyard and follows the dynamic triangular geometry of the site to create glazed kitchen, dining, living with study space perched like a tree-house at the upper level overlooking a green roof.

Photo © Courtesy of 1st-option

The new roof structure is supported on four internal columns only with long cantilevers only possible by the fabrication of the roof as a stressed skin with steel plates welded to the top and the bottom of the structural beams. The outside wall is an uninterrupted ribbon of full height glass.

Photo © Courtesy of 1st-option

The project won a Royal Institute of British Architects Award in 2009.

The people

Architects: Eldridge Smerin
Location: Belsize Park, London, England
Client: Private
Photographs: 1st-option

HouseVariety

Saturday, April 23, 2011