High St house
A tiny pre-1911 cottage on a tiny 253m2 site, the design works hard to find generosity.
The existing house is moved forward, a relaxation to all boundary edges enables enough space to construct one special room to the rear.
The project builds less in order to provide generosity on a constrained site - the special room remains flexible, void of any fixed walls or cabinetry that could dictate the permanence of the occupants’ routine.
The room is an empty square, serviced by a utility core, circumnavigated by a split-level stair. By removing obstacles, the special room is free - occupied only by loose furnishings. With doors open, the internal and external public space operates as a single volume, sharing the same brick materiality.
The project challenges the commonly prescribed room requirements of today’s homes, working with strategies of expanding constrained space to ensure the small site does not feel small.
