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COURTYARD HOUSE

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OEB were approached by a photographer and colour consultant who lived in an unusual end of terrace house in Fulham that featured a large rear studio space, once a stable and garage.  

 

They wanted to convert the ground floor studio into a space  to live in as they grew older, avoiding the need to go up and down the tightly winding stairs to the first floor living and kitchen space, and bedroom in the loft.   

 

The clients had lived in Japan, and wanted to bring the spirit of some the spaces they encountered there into the designs for the new space.   We proposed opening up a central part of the existing workshop to form a new ‘tsubo-niwa’ courtyard space, around which the living, kitchen and sleeping spaces were arranged.  

With the flat roof redesigned to slope to the centre away from the high garden walls surrounding the site, the design maximised daylight into the calm interior, while allowing rainwater to be collected in a pool that also acts as a flood-resilience design.

 

A smaller study space was retained in a relocated position at the front of the house, facing the street, with a new window set into an existing garage door opening.

 

We worked sensitively to reuse existing structure and materials, including the large steels spanning the existing space, and the old stone cobbles that were found beneath the timber floorboards.  

 

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