Tailored House
Modern House Exterior, London
Shortlisted for a London RIBA Award, and commended at the New London Architecture Awards, the 5 bedroomed Tailored House draws an analogy with a tailored suit – elegant, cogent, and intrinsically familiar when initially apprehended, but revealing material opulence and individuality in details.
The ‘sartorial’ brief called for a variety of spaces – expansive settings for social gatherings and inner ‘pocket’ sanctums for treasured moments of solitude – in a house of equal stature to the neighbouring Victorian townhouses, but entirely modern and unique.
The 2,000 sqft build is conceived as a series of layers receding from the street, variously lifted, punctured and fanned open to allow light to the interior. The street façade – in overlayed planes of loadbearing Roman-format brick, render and Carrara Arabescato marble – dissolves along the flank, which is cranked outwards to gather light, tracing a faultline in the urban grain. The brickwork gives way to a screen of stone fins that conceal sheer glazing behind. These contrasting planes of striated, abrasive textures and sumptuous stone are accented by tall, bronze-framed windows.