Double House, designed by architect Jonathan Woolf, is a grand pair of contemporary four-bedroom semi-detached houses occupying a total gross floor area of 1,000 sq metres adjacent to Hampstead Heath. Because the site is located in conservation area planning permission took two years and a steel framed structure was chosen for speed and economy. The two houses, roughly square on plan and each built around its own internal double height court, or atrium, with sliding glass roof lights that can be operated at the touch of a switch, are similar but not identical. Between the two atria is a large light well that runs through the whole of the house from the glazed roof to the basement, allowing light to penetrate the shared subterranean swimming pool, formed within a sheet piled excavation, in a way judges for the RIBA Award considered gives it an almost spiritual quality”
Internally the houses have blue-grey Pietra Serena polished Italian sandstone floors and plain painted plaster walls. The construction took two years and the RIBA Judges praised what had been “A labour of love by the architects to achieve a quality that is exceptional” Photography: Helene Binet (020 7209 9596) and Matthew Weinreb (0870 444 0670)
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