The winner of this category is a design applied to a
pair of houses, Pond House and Park House. The
houses sit in a leafy parkside setting, but contrast
sharply with the red brick vernacular of leafy Dulwich.
The client, Kirk Pickering, had a clear vision for the
design. He wanted the houses to appear as a
surprise when approached via the 100-metre-long
entrance lane and to look like a single house at first
glance. Architect Munkenbeck + Marshall selected a
gullwing roof profile for its single, simple shape, and to
provide a degree of separation between the twin
homes.
Each house has approximately 5,000 sq ft of space,
five bedrooms, a swimming pool, a similar plan and
an atrium at its heart. Huge doors open to the
southern gardens and bridges cross the atriums to
link bedrooms.
The basement pools are formed from contiguous
piles. Above a ground level ridge beam a steel
structure has concrete plank floors. The steel
structure allows the large cantilevers and cross
supports at roof level.
The houses are clad in oak, black long format brick,
glass and aluminium. The ground floor and terraces
are finished in limestone while swimming pool walls
and floors are clad in black slate.
There was the potential for the large areas of glass in
the houses to act counter to high thermal
performance. For this reason, each of the houses is
considered as two accommodation units enclosing
an internal 'conservatory'. This is achieved by installing
high levels of insulation in the walls.
In summer months the central atrium is cooled by
drawing night-time air through large ducts positioned
below the front and garden terraces. Air is drawn
through the ducts by a roof-mounted fan above the
atrium and enters the space through floor mounted
trench heater grills. Baffles close the duct in winter
when warm air then enters the space via trench
heaters. In summer a large motorised blind shades
the south facing atrium glass.
The judges said of the winning design: “The end result
is dynamic and intriguing. The design is extremely well
considered and detailed.” |
