• Location

    Hillside House
  • Type

    Residential
  • Year

    2018
  • Size

    177.5m2

The natural contours can minimise visual impact

Architect and Project Manager – Douglas and King Architects
Planning Consultant – Douglas and King Architects
Structural Engineer – Conisbee
MandE – Mendick Waring

Hillside House is located on a south-facing hillside within a residential back-land site in Barnet.  The brief was to design a four-bedroom family house to the rear of the client’s existing home, with independent access and car/bicycle parking facilities, and to fully integrate the building into the topography of the site.

The ‘hillside’ concept sensitively adapts the configuration of the building to minimise its visual impact whilst maximising its privacy as a dwelling.  The partially submerged building eschews the traditional ‘house’ arrangement in order to allow the living areas on the upper floor to interact with light and nature at the existing garden level whilst the bedrooms and workspaces on the lower floor are sheltered and surrounded by a sunken-decked garden.

The building appears to have a single volume floating on and over the existing garden and could be construed to be a garden shed.  The open plan interior of the upper floor creates a perfect family/social space in contrast to the seclusion of the lower floor.

The site area is 750 sq m and the dwelling’s footprint is 177.5 sq m.  The building has been designed to be energy efficient through a cavity wall insulated system that provides high insulation during the winter.  During the summer it provides ventilation to prevent surface condensation.

Due to the energy-efficiency of the building shell it is possible to use a low temperature heating system such as under floor heating powered by a condensation boiler.

The green roof on top of the bedrooms area will provide an attenuation effect on the rainwater run off and the pitched roof allows for the installation of a solar PV Panel.

Planning Permission was granted at the beginning of February 2018 under delegated powers following a series of reviews with the LB Barnet and the tender and construction processes are taking place in 2018.

Douglas and King developed the project as designers and are acting for the client as Project Managers and Planning Consultants.  Our blog on Creative Project Leadership can be read by CLICKING HERE and our advice on developing Back-land Sites can be read in our Garden Grabbing Developments blog by CLICKING HERE