Tonsley Place, SW18

Three five-bedroom terrace houses designed for a bomb damaged infill site in Wandsworth, London. The modern house design relates to the existing Victorian street front, and residential apartments to the south and west elevations. The height of the houses was determined by the daylight requirement of the adjacent apartments along with the slope of the street giving rise to the staggered set back up the hill. The south facing elevations are white rendered grids punctuated with first floor verandas to the street, providing suntraps for the bedrooms and strong modelling to the facade. The mansard roofs are punctuated with large dormer windows clad in paternated zinc providing a durable and low maintenance construction. The WC and bedroom store are vertically expressed with timber cladding responding to the proportions of the Victorian terraces along the street.

To increase the volume of the living area and to create a studio feel, the ground floor level is lowered to the rear and large sliding doors introduced to create a strong relationship with the exterior terrace and garden beyond. The use of a large north facing structurally glazed skylight to the living room along with a skylight over the stair well introduces natural daylight deep into the plan. This allows a deeper full width ground floor without the need for external light wells increasing the usable floor area. The dining area is visually opened up via a structural glass balustrade to the living area and an industrial scaled sliding door held open on a fusible link to the stair well maintaining the free flow of space.

Status: Completed

Client: Q Developments

Floor Area: 615 sq/m