Studio House, North London

London, United Kingdom 1993–1994

This small studio and house in a north London mews, is made within the walls of an existing two-storey warehouse. The existing building was of various ages, and the idea of the new construction is to add further layers to make a new whole.

Modest materials – MDF, plasterboard, timber studwork, fibre cement panels, and insulating glass – are used in their raw state, so that their material presence is analogous to the rough brickwork and layers of paint of the existing building. The old walls are treated as a ground on which new claddings are laid selectively, to give the interior a rich and ambiguous character.