Forest Houses represent, in some ways, a typical London housing story. On the site of a former builder’s yard in Newham’s Wanstead Flats, an eagle-eyed client saw the opportunity to transform the leafy, relatively generous plot into three design-led, new-build homes. Yet the clever design goes beyond making the most of the square footage available and offers a new architectural take to living on the edge of London, bridging the urban, suburban and rural. The architects, east London-based studio Dallas-Pierce-Quintero took on the commission and crafted a composition of contemporary residential architecture that is on one end linked to a row of terrace houses – respecting it and connecting to it – and on the other, opens up towards the greenery of the parkland.
The architecture studio, led by founders Jonathan Dallas, David Pierce, and Juliet Quintero, designed for the complex one brand-new three-bedroom family house, two new smaller two-bedroom houses, and an extra one-bed home that resulted from the remodelling and extension of a former end-of-terrace shop at the site's entrance.
The brownfield plot has now been completely transformed through the team's smart approach of 'upside-down' living, where bedrooms are located in the 'quieter' ground level, while living spaces are placed above, maximising the vistas towards the leafy park.
Linking Forest Houses to site and history
The site’s industrial past was referenced through materials and shapes, the architects explain: 'In a nod to the site’s light industrial history, the upper floors of each home feature a sawtooth roof profile, sensitively designed to mirror the height of the rear addition eaves of the adjacent dwellings and avoid the appearance of an overly dominating, bulky development.'
The metal-clad tops and elegant brick bases of the buildings are locked together in a jigsaw-style arrangement that promotes a strong sense of unity across the whole, while also creating unexpected indoor and outdoor spaces and views.
The materials not only ensure a distinct look for the volumes, but also secure a robust, long-lasting and easy-to-maintain palette.
‘Celebrating simplicity in materials and innovation in design and construction, the low-tech yet super-insulated project fuses traditional and modern methods of construction to create a truly sustainable and efficient-to-run home,’ the architects say. ‘This can be seen in the careful balance of glazing to insulation in the façade, which optimises thermal performance for residents, while an air-source heat pump enables low-cost, low-maintenance living.’
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