The brief: an off-form concrete residence to accommodate two adults, four children and an increasingly disabled grandparent.

The existing Edwardian basement had to form the base of the building. The new building is orientated towards the south. It opens to the west, the side of maximum privacy. The living-dining room is canted to allow high level east facing windows which draw down light into it and the children’s bedrooms below. All windows hang within the walls of the building or from the roof minimizing heat transfer and allowing them to be open during rain.

Because of the southern aspect, skylights have been used in both parts of the building to capture and draw down light through the immediate floor and to floors below. Concrete has been used as blades, as screens, as overhangs and as the deep gills of the building. It both shades and ventilates the building. In summer there is significant cross ventilation and upwards drafting. In winter, aspect and thermal massing.