Hasta La Ideas

A roof of dark patinated copper distinguishes this house in Wimbledon Village, London, designed by local architecture studio Jason Good Architecture.

Jason Good Architecture drew on the leafy neighbourhood’s combination of Arts and Crafts-style architecture and more modern houses for the two-bedroom dwelling, which replaces an existing 1980s cottage.

“We aimed to design a house that sits comfortably and sensitively within its context, without simply recreating the past,” founder Jason Good told Dezeen.

“This acceptance of modernism in the area is partly due to the bold, rule-breaking house on the adjacent street to our site, designed by Richard and Su Rogers for Richard’s parents in the 1960s,” added Good.

“Their modernist glass house challenged the conservative architectural norms of the time, paving the way for contemporary designs like ours,” he added.

The L-shaped ground floor of the home is divided by a central entrance hall illuminated by two large, circular skylights, one of which extends upwards within a cylindrical form to give the building its distinctive “top hat”.

Hugging a garden at the rear of the home, both the living room and main bedroom open onto a patio via large glass doors, while the kitchen overlooks a small walled garden created alongside the home’s front driveway.

“The double-storey light and ventilation oculus, which we refer to as the ‘top hat’, not only shapes the external form of the building but also plays a key role in the internal layout by bringing natural light and ventilation into the heart of the home,” said Good.

A black staircase illuminated by a double-height section of glass bricks leads to the first floor. Here, a TV room overlooks the entrance hall through a glazed circular opening and is flanked by a study and an additional bedroom.

Each of these spaces takes advantage of the set-back nature of the front of the home, which allows for large windows overlooking the street. At the back of the home, the openings are minimised to prevent overlooking.

“One of the key challenges was the proximity to neighbouring properties, which restricted windows on the rear first-floor elevation,” said Good.

“This constraint became a creative opportunity to explore alternative ways of bringing light into the house while ensuring privacy,” he continued.

“We introduced a combination of skylights, glass blocks, and carefully positioned horizontal windows, enriching the quality of light and reinforcing the spatial flow of the rooms.”

Beneath the upper level of patinated copper, the ground floor of the home is finished in dark, handmade brick. This material palette was selected by Good for its “durability and sense of craftsmanship”.

Inside, stone floors and oak panelling are intended to create a “minimal and natural feel”, with the bathrooms featuring walnut Japanese baths and full-height marble walls.

Elsewhere in London, other recently completed homes include a residence with a slatted wooden floor by S2B Studio and a brick and concrete home in Crystal Palace by 31/44 Architects.

The photography is by Jim Stephenson.

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