Fleet House delivers ‘urban repair’ to village’s boundary-wall tradition, says architect
Architect Stanton Williams has completed a 388sq m contemporary home that it says is a piece of “urban repair” in north London’s Hampstead conservation area.
The practice said that Fleet House, on Admiral’s Walk in Hampstead Village, drew inspiration from the idea of re-establishing lost boundaries – reinterpreting the neighbourhood’s historic “boundary wall tradition” in the process.
Stanton Williams principal director Patrick Richard said the theme was underscored by the new home’s alignment with the tall garden wall of the adjacent grade I-listed Fenton House which dates from the 17th century.
“We were particularly interested in reinstating the local tradition and developing the house around the idea of an almost endless boundary – one that at the same time shelters and generates the domestic space,” he said.
“Acting as a textured protective shell, the boundary unfolds into a series of habitable spaces, gains thickness, hides and creates entrances, rooms and courtyards as it responds to its context. The boundary wall becomes the house.”
Designed for a Swedish-Japanese couple, the house seeks to prioritise the use of natural light and “breathing space”.
Richard said continuous surfaces in handmade brick, gneiss stone, stucco and European oak, spread from the exterior into the interior of the house to offer a sense of “serene infinity”.
“Our aim was to create contemporary but timeless architecture, rooted in its context without pastiche,” he said.
“We wanted to relate the house to the strong architectural elements of the neighbourhood, while keeping the building identifiable within its own era and its own narrative charge.”
Stanton Williams said the project value was confidential.
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