Completed : 2023
TEAM
Architect :
A-Zero Architects
Giles Bruce, Mizue Katayama, Shoichi Sado, Yasamin Arbabi, Limal Harris,
Structural Design: Studio Allen
Contractor : Blero Construction
Windows & Curtain walling : Aumaxum, Mumford & Wood
Renewables Design & Installation:
Dulwich House
London, UK,
A new build house in a leafy suburb of London, the project was designed around a comment by the client who said 'I would not be adverse to having a tree inside my house'.
We took this as an invitation to find ways to integrate planting throughout the house and create the clearest connection from inside to the landscaping outside. Internal planting is located in deep planted beds, and a double height space in the living area accommodates a large bamboo which grows from ground to first floor. The exposed steel frame doubles as a structure for planting (in the long term) to attach and grow.
The scale, proportion and materiality of the house need to be very sympathetic to the neighbouring houses to meet the local design constraints. A palette of brick, clay tiles and zinc give a neutral pallette around which planting is encourage to climb.
Adjacent to the river Thames, this new build development is designed to capture specific views to London. The building is conceived as two parts, a lower brick base built from bricks harvested from the original building which sat on the site, and an upper cantilevered volume, which mediates between the scales of the adjacent buildings. The project references its context in form, but is distinct in the materiality of fibre cement tiles, flush glazing and integrated photovoltaic panels.
Designing for a view
The site is sandwiched between low rising housing to the south, and a mock Tudor pub to the west. A detached dwelling that had existed on the site since the early 1900s had been completely overshadowed by a new development to the north. We questioned how a new development could get a view the view to the Thames, the Shard and the City, all obscured by the surrounding buildings. We hired a cherry picker to understand where the views were, and the orientation a building would need to be to capture them.
A-Zero Architects - Copyright © 2025