Step inside a North London home that lies low however punches excessive

Belief architect Andrei Saltykov to show a difficult website right into a successful proposition – Arbour Home, his newest residential scheme in North London’s Crouch Finish, is a becoming follow-up to his rising portfolio, which incorporates the acclaimed Station Home that made use of a former storage in an awkwardly formed and positioned South London plot.

With Arbour Home, much more challenges emerged. The positioning, a former workshop, has pretty restricted entry from the road, had encountered planning opposition earlier than and had remained derelict for years, so it was in a reasonably unhealthy situation. Saltykov, who heads London-based follow Lacey+Saltykov Architects / ASaP, noticed alternative inside this seemingly difficult context- the location is engulfed in nature inside a peaceable pocket of suburban residences.

Aiming for a house that’s deeply linked with nature and gives a meaningly architectural expertise, whereas on the identical time stays discreet to its neighbours, Saltykov crafted a low-lying construction with a particular, angular, timber roof.

He explains in a written assertion: ‘Conceived as a holistic object together with each the pavilion-like home and the plot on which it sits, the part follows the pure slope of the location’s topography with a steady break up in flooring ranges organized round three separate flights of stairs within the center. The linear plan is pushed by the solar path – the morning aspect with bedrooms and lightwells to the East; the night aspect with communal areas and a backyard to the West.’

‘The floating grid of the undulating timber roof sits on a easy rectangular plan and creates two distinct zones on the primary higher flooring – a decrease intimate residing space and a taller, extra open eating. Its construction extends out to create a robust visible rhythm and a nod to the semi-industrial historical past of the location.’

Arbour Home is unfold throughout two ranges – the bottom flooring, a piano nobile that incorporates a flowing residing house with social and entertaining areas that really feel pleasingly open to the encircling foliage, and a decrease stage, snugly nestled into the bottom. The latter homes 4 beneficiant bedrooms and a research, alongside loos and auxiliary areas.

The construction is topped by an attention-grabbing floating timber roof – the structure piece’s signature characteristic. ‘[It] ties all the things collectively, leading to two completely different clear heights on the primary stage: low and intimate in the lounge, beneficiant and ethereal above the kitchen and eating house,’ the architect writes.

‘The partitions and the roof are aligned on two completely different grids that meet on the key intersections and prolong out creating a visible rhythm and robust, graphic shadows. Clearstory home windows contained throughout the depth of the roof construction across the perimeter deliver loads of daylight inside with out further overheating. Undulating profiles of the timber beams create a robust inside theme and a collection of conventional pitches above for managing rainwater with a nod to the semi-industrial historical past of the location.’

To make sure that is an environmentally acutely aware dwelling, the architect aimed to counterbalance the excessive embodied affect of making a basement. The glulam roof is a low-emissions ingredient, whereas cautious gentle and air flow methods, when it got here to openings and orientation, helped cut back the embodied carbon in MEP programs. Excessive-performance insulation permits the house to deal with air-tightness for higher thermal consolation and spend – producing a house that follows key sustainable structure rules.

The venture took over a decade to finish, nevertheless it was all value it, Saltykov says: ‘It’s three Summer time Olympics; six UK Prime Ministers; one lifetime of an architectural follow and 1/fifth of my very own life since I first visited the location of what’s now Arbour Home. I confirmed the primary sketches of the scheme to the consumer simply earlier than Christmas 2015.’

‘The diagram didn’t change since then – a linear plan with dug-in, east-facing bedrooms and personal courtyards under, and a communal higher flooring opening west to the backyard and afternoon solar.’

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