Set within the Kew Green Conservation Area of southwest London, the four bedroom family house is formed of two sculptural weathering steel volumes inserted behind a retained nineteenth century stable wall.

The brief evolved through a series of conversations with the clients which ranged over imagining the children running about the house, summer dinners spilling outside and the balance of quiet nooks with social spaces, to pragmatic concerns like drying laundry and how to build a boat in the ment.

In response, Piercy&Company designed the house as a built diagram of the way the family wanted to use the spaces, with an internal landscape of alternative routes and levels connecting expressive spaces aimed at creating moments of delight for adults and children alike. First and foremost a family home, the spaces are intended to be informal but rich with incidental spaces, unexpected light and complex vertical volumes.

The house is formed of a simple plan to make the most of the constrained site, reduce the building’s mass in the streetscape and respond to the living patterns of the family. Consisting of two rectangles; one slightly smaller, set back and sunken 1m lower, the wings each have living spaces on the ground floor and bedrooms above.

Connecting the wings is a glass encased circulation which allows light to pour into the house whilst providing breathing space between internal spaces. Inside, oak veneer paneling and Dinesen flooring are the basis of a light, natural and refined palette of materials.

The two shells housing the main living and sleeping areas are formed of 4mm weathering steel, a hardworking combination of structure and façade.

The weathering steel is maintenance free, essential for the enclosed site, and is softened by a patchwork of expressed welds and perforated panels. The deep orange tones of the weathering steel and the perforations within this skin echo the dappled light and autumnal palette of nearby Kew Gardens.

A list of planning constraints – including a conservation area context, a change of use and no access on three sides -formed a backdrop to the project. To overcome these challenges Piercy&Company inserted the house behind a retained 19th century brick gable end and split the house into twin gabled forms in keeping with local massing.