6a architects . photos: © Johan Dehlin
Two former workshops, originally a coach house and works building bearing marks of the continual small alterations and adjustments over 200 years, nestle landlocked behind 3 & 4 storey terraced houses that define a city block. Oscillating between workshop, home and office, home, office, workshop, home again since the late 1990’s and the accompanying stream of small changes, these two buildings have almost settled into a single house. With no views beyond the site, large roof-lights and lanterns define three main spaces with attendant smaller rooms, all looking into a string of walled garden. The latest intervention saw the demolition of an out-building and the addition of a new timber roof to provide a double height hall and stairwell linking the two buildings into a single house and the creation of the garden designed by Dan Pearson, enough earth pockets created to support a cherry tree and unruly planting climbing amongst the walls. With a nod to Frank Gehry’s own house in Santa Monica, the original approximate construction of timber, plywood, roofing felt, proprietary staircase, brick repairs, has been constantly re-used to make a house which is permanently unfinished.
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