House 34

The house is inserted in a post-WWII housing estate and stresses the relevance of council housing in the UK, a fundamental part of the contemporary urban fabric and sense of community.

The project is an architectural bricolage…
On the ground floor, two walls were removed to open the house to the gardens and increase flexibility of use.

A circle in the plaster reveals the longstanding brickwork, a new steel beam is added to support the floor above, and a non-structural column claims autonomy for architecture. A curtain brings warmth and encloses the private areas above.

New white doors are highlighted with green architraves in pine. Pink marble turns an ordinary wall into a key divider.

In the bathroom, a central wall was removed to increase slightly the area and glazed tiles were the natural choice to clad the new walls.

With this renovation, the house becomes the free outcome of an eventful interplay of architectural elements, a constellation of encounters between existing and new orders. As Bruno Latour said, the whole is always smaller than its parts.