Dove and Tse

Projects / 06

Screen House

One dark brick, laid five ways — plain, raked, perforated, banded and pulled into fins — with a cedar pavilion on the roof.

Location
London
Type
New detached house
Fig. 01The street front: raked brick between two slot windows.

The place

A suburban London street of detached and semi-detached houses, with deep front gardens and long back gardens running down to a line of mature trees.

The brief

A family house of around 250 m² that is private to the street and open to the garden, with a room on the roof for work and for evenings outside.

The design

A single dark-brick volume holds both main floors. Across the first floor the bricks are turned 22° so each one steps out of the wall, drawing a sawtooth of shadow that changes through the day; raking is kept to the street face, with plain stretcher bond elsewhere. Two slot windows with deep steel reveals cut through it. A relief band marks the first floor and a projecting plinth grounds the house. At street level a cedar store door and a porch behind hit-and-miss brick keep the front calm. The garden front opens fully below; above, a deep window box lined in cedar, with shutters and trailing planting, gives the main bedroom a sunny nook. On the roof, a cedar pavilion opens onto a planted terrace.

Solid where it needs privacy; raked, perforated or pulled into fins where it can play with light.

Fig. 02Long section: forecourt, house, roof pavilion and garden.

Garden front

Full-width sliding glass below; above, a cedar-lined window box with shutters and planting spilling over the sill.

Fig. 03The garden front and window box.

Inside, looking out

The living space opens across the whole width of the garden; the brick plinth runs at sill height outside.

Fig. 04The living space, opening to the terrace and orchard lawn.

Roof pavilion

A cedar pavilion set back on the roof, opening onto a decked terrace edged with planters and sedum.

Fig. 05Massing model.

Models

Card massing models: one brick volume, the pavilion set back above it.

Fig. 06Massing model (rendered).
Fig. 07Model detail: the slot windows and raked panel (rendered).

Drawings

Plans, elevations and details

Each plan sits beside a view of the spaces it shows; the drawing set follows, from the exploded axonometric to a 1:20 detail.

Fig. 08Ground floor plan.
Fig. 09The kitchen and dining space, opening onto the terrace and orchard lawn.
Fig. 10First floor plan.
Fig. 11Bedroom 1, looking out through the deep window box over the garden.
Fig. 12Exploded axonometric: brick volume, roof terrace, pavilion.
Fig. 13Axonometric of house and garden.
Fig. 14Street elevation.
Fig. 15Garden elevation.
Fig. 16Raked brick wall and parapet, 1:20.

Landscape

The garden, room by room

A gravel forecourt and drifts of grasses soften the street front. At the back, a brick terrace with a seat wall steps down to an orchard lawn, framed by deep borders and a pleached hornbeam screen. Planting is also built into the house — in the window box, the roof planters and the sedum — so the brick greens up over time.

  1. 01

    Forecourt

    Permeable gravel and a path of clay pavers between beds of grasses and a white-stemmed birch.

  2. 02

    Terrace

    Clay pavers continuing the porch, with a brick seat wall facing the lawn.

  3. 03

    Orchard lawn

    Multi-stem crab apples in grass, between deep perennial borders.

  4. 04

    Roof garden

    Decking, planters along the parapet and a sedum roof beside the pavilion.

Fig. 17Site and landscape plan.
Fig. 18Summer — From the terrace down the orchard lawn to the pleached hornbeams.

Planting palette

  • Malus 'Evereste'Multi-stem crab apples forming the orchard
  • Carpinus betulusPleached hornbeam screen on the rear boundary
  • Betula utilis 'Jacquemontii'White-stemmed birch in the forecourt
  • Stipa tenuissimaSoft grasses in the front beds
  • Pittosporum tenuifoliumEvergreen structure by the street
  • Rosmarinus officinalis 'Prostratus'Trailing over the window box and roof planters
  • Sedum mixGreen roof beside the pavilion

Materials

  • Dark multi brick, dark mortarThe whole volume: plain, raked, perforated, banded, fins
  • Western red cedarStore door, porch lining, shutters, roof pavilion
  • Dark bronze steelSlot-window reveals, copings, frames
  • Clay paversPath, porch and garden terrace
  • GravelPermeable forecourt
  • SedumRoof beside the pavilion
Fig. 19Material samples: dark brick, cedar, steel, clay pavers, gravel, sedum.

Project

Project data

Location
London
Type
New detached house
Site
c. 330 m²
GIA
c. 250 m²
Architectural design
Dove + Tse
Landscape
Dove + Tse
Structural engineer
TBC
Contractor
TBC