The building needed to be finished in a short time and the client wanted to use a local builder with knowledge of traditional methods.

The client loved the traditional Cornish slate and traditional cottages as well as Voysies buildings in the neighbourhood. It was also important to protect and respect the plot and the original settings of their surroundings: where many houses are built too big for their plot.

Cottages have been built, arguably, in most cultures in most settings. They have in common that they use: local, easily available materials, are simple in shape and don’t use many materials. 

We drew plans of a ​‘converted cottage’ with the entrance at the side of the cottage underneath a canopy and next to the kitchen. The ground floor kitchen, dining living runs on the first floor and is double height where the living room is, from where there are stairs going up to a loft space with two small rooms in dormers, a balcony looking into the living room and with views over the ocean.

The whole property is wheelchair accessible, so the terrace doors are sliding doors and the other doors are specialist. The extra downstairs bathroom is also wheelchair accessible. 

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This year The London Festival of Architecture (LFA) went digital, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Retaining its June spot and theme – ​‘Power’ – LFA Digital 2020 launched a variety of virtual events, including ​‘Giant Dolls’ House — alone together’. 

The concept was simple: build your own doll’s house in a shoe box. The results? As varied, creative and unexpected as you can imagine. The collaborative project was delivered with the help of Oxfam and flags up the importance of home, especially in the light of the global refugee crisis. People submitted work by sending a photo of their creation to the organisers. 

More information on the Giant Dolls’ House project here.

LFA director Tamsie Thompson said ​‘LFA Digital is full of content that is experimental, daring and challenging – but also plenty of fun. This extraordinary programme for extraordinary times is designed to appeal to a global public audience’

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Exposed struc­ture and plas­ter mark Cat­ja de Haas’s base­ment office con­ver­sion. Fea­ture in the AJ writ­ten by Rob Wilson.

If you have an AJ subscription the full article can be read here.

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Here is a link to the full article but you will need an AJ subscription.

The base­ment of this Lon­don ter­raced house has been re-mod­elled to cre­ate a light, airy office for the architect’s prac­tice, com­plete with its own direct entrance. The inter­nal stairs down to the Work­space Con­ver­sion have been removed and one of the spine walls has been opened-up leav­ing the struc­ture exposed. Full sto­ry can be seen here.

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