Sitting amid typical London historical townhouses, within a site that used to be the large garden of an end-of-terrace Victorian stucco villa, Soboro is a clear departure from the commonly found styles in this residential part of the British capital. Created by emerging architecture practice Kennedy Twaddle as a contemporary family home, Soboro cuts a unique figure within its context.
‘The restricted site and demand for a unique building suggested an essay in concrete', explain the architects. So, the house was created using precast panels and a minimalist material palette of board formed concrete and timber. The structure's strong character and fairly austere presence on the street, however, is softened and remains relevant to the urban character of the neighbourhood through its massing and composition.
At the same time, what appears to be a two-storey house from the street, in fact hides a cavernous basement, which extends beneath the plot and up to the existing villa next door. The top floor contains two bedrooms, while the ground level is reserved for a large entrance lounge. A generous living space, neturally lit through courtyard voids cut through the volume, unfolds in the basement.
The three levels were treated in a slightly different way in terms of finish and materials, hinting at their different roles within the operation of the house. ‘Exposing the underlying strata was further developed to give each level of the house a different feel. Rustication was explored in the raw tactile nature of the concrete in the basement, which gets smoother through the three levels', say the architects, who created the final design in close consultation with the client – even though he lives partly in Singapore and therefore the process needed to be done largely through phone and emails.
The architecture firm, with offices in Dalston, Scotland and Copenhagen, is headed by Chris Twaddle and Gary Kennedy and the team has more residential work in the capital on the pipeline, as well as a hotel near trendy London Fields.
INFORMATION
-
Bvlgari's celebration of the Serpenti snakes its way from Tokyo to Shanghai, Seoul and MumbaiRoman high jeweller Bvlgari marks the Year of the Snake with the sensual Serpenti Infinito exhibition
-
Fancy transforming your ageing Casio into a smartwatch? Ollee has the answerThe Ollee Watch transforms Casio's cult digital watch into a retro-tinged smart device
-
A new concrete house in São Paulo state is designed to open up to its hillside viewsArchitects Fernanda Padula and Juliana Risso have shaped this family house in Brazil from meticulously poured concrete forms, precise joinery and a close relationship with the landscape
-
Join us on a first look inside Regent’s View, the revamped canalside gasholder project in LondonRegent's View, the RSHP-designed development for St William, situated on a former gasholder site on a canal in east London, has just completed its first phase
-
The Royal College of Art has announced plans for renewal of its Kensington campusThe Royal College of Art project, led by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, includes the revitalisation of the Darwin Building and more, in the hopes of establishing an open and future-facing place of creativity
-
Ursula K Le Guin’s maps of imaginary worlds are charted in a new exhibitionUrsula K Le Guin, the late American author, best known for her science fiction novels, is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Architectural Association in London, charting her whimsical maps, which bring her fantasy worlds alive
-
Power Hall’s glow-up shines light on science and innovation in ManchesterPower Hall at The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester was given a spruce-up by Carmody Groarke, showcasing the past and future of machines, engineering and sustainable architecture
-
Celebrate the angular joys of 'Brutal Scotland', a new book from Simon Phipps'Brutal Scotland' chronicles one country’s relationship with concrete; is brutalism an architectural bogeyman or a monument to a lost era of aspirational community design?
-
Max Creasy on the future of architectural photography and a shift to the ‘snapshot’A show of photographer Max Creasy’s work opens at the AA in London, asking a key question: where is contemporary architectural photography heading?
-
Tour this immaculately composed Islington house for an art collector who loves entertainingAn Islington house by Emil Eve Architects, on coveted Thornhill Road, combines warm minimalism and some expert spatial planning
-
Inside the Apple House, the sustainable centrepiece of Tom Stuart-Smith's gardening EdenThe mission? To explore and celebrate the ways in which nature can impact well-being
