Introduction
Rick Mather's first house and office gave him the opportunity to develop the traditional form of the London terraced house and expolit the merits of living up high rather than the Victorian norm of the highly compartmentalised house. The usual basement-and-three-floors arrangement became basement, four internal floors and a split-level roof garden.
The conversion involved the addition of a storey on top of the existing house which had not been inhabited since 1938 and which was without water and plumbing. The section through the house bcaomes that of a traditional London house turned upside house turned upside down.
The top two internal floors act as one volume, a partly double-height living room with a mezzanine containing the kitchen and dining area. Two bedrooms and a bathroom occupy the floor below, a studio is contained on the ground floor and the basement, becoming surplus to requirements, contains spare rooms. The rearrangement of the levels creates an interconnection of all the spaces inside and out.
The house was an early experiement in the play of light - the upper volumes are flooded with light from the big sloping window to the roof terrace, which is in itself a space created out of nowhere. A tiny area on top at the back of the house provides enough room for a bench and table, with steps rising up the roof slope and railings around. The whole are was floored with duckboards and covered with container plants.
The Houseplant Book
1989
House & Garden
Starting out with a derelict Regency shell
Feb 81
Arredamento 270
A Londre su cinque piani
1977