Prototype for suburban housing, Stevenage,
UK, 1998-2000

This project was the winning entry for a national competition held by William Sutton Trust. The brief required a pair of semi-detached houses (for 4 and 5 persons respectively) to be built within an existing housing development in Hertfordshire.

The design explores the use of familiar images of a house-like building, and an environmental strategy which uses prefabrication and breathing-wall construction. The essential detailing and contiguous cladding emphasise the form of the house.

Its angled plan creates two distinct faces in response to orientation and ideas of shared, defensible space. Rooms of varying volume are arranged around a central hall offering both separation and spatial continuity. The highly insulated structure was erected in ten working days.