Screened off from the outside world, this four-bedroom house occupies a leftover taxi garage. A set of vaulted roofs, each topped with a skylight fill the house with natural daylight that filters all the way down to the lower ground floor via a set of double-height spaces and courtyards.
Project
- Use: Housing
- Location: London Borough of Hammersmith
- Status: Completed
- Size: GIA: 273m2
- Awards:
- RIBA London Award 2015
- RIBA Best London Emerging Practice Award 2015
- RIBA House of the Year finalist (Grand Designs) 2015
- Roofing Awards 2015 finalist
- Date: Completed 2014
Team
- Client: Ivo Hesmondhalgh, Stephen and Vicky Bennett
- Architects: vPPR Architects
- Structural Engineer: Heyne Tillett Steel
- Services: Richard Pearce
- Cost consultant: Geoff Beardsley and Partners
- Contractor: Eurobuild
- Photography © Ioana Marinescu
“This house is a sophisticated example of urban infill bursting with clever details; its collection of roofs powerfully articulating the relationship between dwelling, light and sky.”
RIBA Judges House of the Year Awards 2015
PROCESS
A series of vaulted roofs rise up over a plain exterior wall on an irregular-shaped site that was once a former taxi depot in Hammersmith.
The roofs are decorated in chequerboard tones, creating a stimulating pattern for the overlooking residents.
Sheltered from the road by quiet residential gardens, a simple brick facade hides the family activity that takes place within.
Strict site restrictions meant that few windows were allowed along the outside edge of the house and so six individual roofs rise up to peaks which end in skylights.
Hidden behind a garage door to the street, a secret courtyard forms the entrance to a dramatic interior.
Internally, the traditional arrangement of private and communal spaces has been flipped upside down, with the more private cellular rooms on the ground floor.
The building’s namesake comes into effect on the upper level as the vaulted rooflights balance delicately along clerestory windows and bring daylight into a single open-plan expanse, housing the shared activities of the family.
Dining, sitting, reading and cooking all take place in areas separated by the light entering the house from above instead of rigid walls or levels.
This manipulation of space and light has driven the design of the entire home, creating intriguing living areas that occupy two courtyards and two grand double-height rooms.
Despite a contentious planning submission, Vaulted House was built and has now been recognised for its ingenious response to an incredibly tight site.
It has garnered a number of awards, not least an RIBA National Award in 2015.
