Without constraints, it’s not architecture. To have all the constraints on one project? That’s architorture.
We frequently encounter tight and complex urban sites nowadays. They are the scraps and offcuts that are left over by the urban pattern cutters. However, a city such as London has such a pressure for accommodation, such an appetite for people, that ever more marginal sites become economically viable.
This site had it all to deal with – numerous neighbours, high perimeter walls, knotweed, a semi basement, and access via a narrow undercroft. It’s a microcosm of the manifold issues that arise in urban infills. The outcome, however, is a pair of houses that provide islands of tranquility, shielded from the bustle of the street, where the difficulties of their location have become their best assets.
Photography by Neil Perry.
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