Villa Caroisla, London
Tucked away in a backland site of west London this project is a genuine hidden gem. Styled as a ‘Treehouse' in its sylvan setting the project is the manifestation of a hidden house in a garden plot surrounded trees and neighbours.
Two 200 year old listed oak trees form the rear site boundary and dictated the extent of the property along with sightlines from neighbouring windows to the front. The plot itself was formed by connecting two adjoining garden plots to make a 30 × 30m plot with a 3m north facing slope.
The house is accessed via a 3m wide pathway between houses to south from the main road which creates a ‘reveal’ on arrival to a unsuspecting world.
The concept sketch shows the idea of the treehouse with bedrooms rasied to the first floor and a transparent ground floor sharing the garden space and terraces
The two building forms created pick out southern and western aspects to address the rising and setting sun. To break the formality of the conventional ‘L’ shape, the smaller of these blocks playfully twists away from a perpendicular plan by eight degrees.
The gap is filled with a double-height glazed entrance where midday is announced by the sun due to its alignment. Natural daylight reaches into the staircase at the rear through a double height space. There is no room that does not enjoy natural daylight in this house. While the main downstairs rooms bathe in it, the rear study and bedroom enjoy dappled northern light.
The project boasts many sustainable features such as Passivhaus standard insulation, triple-glazing, a sedum roof, solar thermal and photovoltaic panels, and a whole house ventilation system. Constructed using a timber frame with western red cedar cladding the house was constructed in a confined backland site.
The delights of this project have come from the natural materials used, the spaces formed, and their relationship to the setting. The play of light and shadows from the surrounding trees on the vertical cedar cladding are a particular feature that complement the glazed ground floor.
Villa Caroisla, London
Client: Private Client
Project Status: Built
Budget: £450k
Team
Nick Baker Architects
Nick Baker
Belen Gonzalez
Ian Peters
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer
Environmental Engineering Partnership
Structural Engineer
TZG Partnership
Landscape Architect
JLC Landscaping