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The Brockley House
Brockley / London
Completed 2023
Conservation Area within London Borough of Lewisham
Build Team MNL Construction Ltd
Creative family spaces. That’s what this family desired. Spaces to be enjoyed by adults and children alike. We set out reimagining the spaces from top to bottom.
A Home Schooling Space
A garden facing home working area was designed for the children, as well as the local home educated community. The spaces were designed to foster learning and growth, and to encourage play and creativity. Why not hop across the window seat to get into the garden? Time to rig up a hanging bar to the ceiling….
The extensions to the house were clad in a larch that weathers over time, with a sedum roof providing a green outlook from the first floor bedrooms. The seasonal change in the materials of the building, echoes the constant change going on inside a busy family home.
The family wanted us to approach the refurbishment of their home with an approach to embracing imperfection. ‘Wabi-Sabi.’
Where there is evidence of a patterned lining paper to the ceiling in some places - leave it. Where wallpaper has been removed and evidence of original wall murals can be seen - frame them.
The use of lime paint as well as clay works and a raw plaster finish, highlights the natural light within the space and breaths life into the building.
Concept Sketches
Concept Sketch
Cross section looking at how the home studio would flow back into a library/sitting room. An art studio sits at the front of the house.
Concept Sketch
Imagining how the home learning studio would extend out towards the garden with climbing bars.
Project Summary
Finishes
Throughout the house we looked to specify natural and recycled. Lime paint, clay plaster, reclaimed flooring and timber cladding.
Wabi Sabi
This project was the start of a new working relationship with a great Contractor who we have gone on to deliver a number of houses with.
Contractor
In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi is centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature.