Project :: 058 : Architect's House no.2

Introduction

The upside-down house principle Mather exploited at his first house was transferred to his next and current home. A larger, mid-Victorian terrace with a garden at basement level gave him the opportunity to refine these ideas of leaving good original sized rooms at lower levels largely untouched whilst turning the upper, often pokey rooms into more utilised living spaces.

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Description

Seven badly proportioned rooms are given over to one large room and a mezzanine complete with a full width glazed section looking over the roof garden. The kitchen and dining area sit alongside the double height living room. A minimal, plaster shell sculptural staircase rises from the living area to the mezzanine bedroom and terrace.

The house was designed to have a working ground floor studio and a sitting room and study on the floor above topped with living and entertainment spaces on the upper floors.

The roof garden is enclosed by high screens of translucent glass to prevent views down to the ground level garden. Tubular steel built-in seating is cantilevered out over the back of the house.

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Press

Times Magazine
Sunnyside Up
Adam and James Caplin - 8 Sept 00

The Times Weekend
Lofty ideas from a master
Jane Owen - 29 Aug 98

The Garden
Thinking small
Gill Billington - Mar 98

Ham and High Property Express
Zen and the art of home maintenance
8 Aug 97

Homes & Garden
Room at the top
Tessa Williams - June 97

Observer Life Magazine
A room with the lid off
Montagu Don - 29 Sept 96

Independent
Gardens in the sky
Jonathan Glancey - 18 Jun 96

Perspectives
Sky-high sights
Mary Keen - April/May 96

Mail on Sunday
Everything on the rooftop is heavenly
Roddy Llewellyn - 20 Aug 95

Weekend Telegraph
Plenty of room at the top
Stephen Lacy - 10 June 95

Observer Life Magazine
Blanc Out
24 Oct 93

The Independent on Sunday
Burning desire
Caroline McGhie - 10 Oct 93

Mail on Sunday
Rooftop View
4 Dec 92

The Times Saturday
Architects of kitchen chaos
Leslie Forbes - 21 Sept 91

The Times Saturday Review
Turning living upside down
Nicole Swengali - 19 Jan 91

Metropolitan
Planners in perspective
Isabel Miles - Sept 84

The Complete Home Book
1983

House & Garden
An architects spectacular
July 83

Woman's Journal
Going through the roof
Psyche Pirie - July 82

Belle
London: The best of British
Betsy Walter - March/April 82

Sunday Times Magazine
100 Ideas
22 Nov 81

Abitare
In Primrose Gardens
July/Aug 81

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• Started : 1977-09-01
• Completed : 1978-03-20
• Country : UK
• County : London
• City : Belsize Park