New-build house with basement on a tight urban site in a Bloomsbury mews.
2015 RIBA National Award
2015 RIBA London Regional Award
2015 Camden Design Award
This new-build house sits on the tight corner site of a historic mews in Bloomsbury, central London.
The superstructure is a reinforced concrete in situ frame to give a solid robust structure, for the desired finishes and for detailing the masonry external walls. The RC frame is exposed in places throughout the building.
Geometrical complexity is introduced throughout the building, and walls and roofs read from the street as a series of angled and peeling planes. The top story is steel framed and clad in patinated bronze, with a very thin profile to the cantilevering overhang.
The substructure of the building was formed using a temporary contiguous piled wall, propped at the ground level, to facilitate excavation of the basement, which is 6 metres deep and sits alongside adjacent existing buildings. A reinforced concrete box was then constructed with tanking and concrete with a waterproofing additive.
A central lightwell runs down through the building into the basement, bringing light into the marble-clad swimming pool.
