Modern mews scheme transforms this tiny London site
The DHaus Company creates a pair of elegant apartments in a squeezed north London site, resulting in this modern mews scheme
Tucked away behind a north London street, on land that once belonged to a pub, is a pair of modern mews-style apartments by The DHaus Company. DHaus is a low-key, high-concept practice based in London, specialising in modest but meticulous domestic spaces and product design, making the most of small spaces and incorporating flexibility and transformability into every design.
These two interlocking duplex apartments combine the typology of the London mews house with the spatial flexibility of a compact Japanese house. The street façade has a geometric metal screen at ground-floor level, angled in such a way as to avoid direct views into the space. The rear façade has a similar faceted form for privacy reasons, but finished in white blocks. The black-painted front façade is an obvious continuation from the heritage façade of The Bull & Last next door, a charismatic and celebrated gastro pub with a 300-year history on the site. The pub’s current structure dates from the 1880s and has also been given a comprehensive restoration and overhaul by DHaus.
Redeveloping the adjacent site for housing involved close collaboration with the local council, with the carefully planned interior spaces and angled sight lines ensuring that views were directed as far as possible without encroaching on existing residences. DHaus also incorporated and reinterpreted other vernacular traditional elements in its façade designs, using a modern concrete cornicing and stepped window reveals to give the new building a sympathetic relationship with the pub.
Inside, the lower unit has three bedrooms on the entrance floor and steps down to a living area and sunken rear courtyard, while the upper unit has two bedrooms and an open-plan kitchen and living area on the top floor with a large glass roof. The wooden stairs that lead up to the top floor have wide risers that extend the edges of the available space, with a minimalist steel ribbon balustrade. Frameless windows, white walls, an absence of mouldings and cornicing and bespoke joinery all maximise the feeling of space, despite the compact site and close proximity of other buildings in this modern mews.
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.
-
Explore Cornwall's cosiest coffee shops
Cornwall is known for its natural beauty and stunning landscape, here is our pick of coffee shops to enjoy the views and refuel
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Maude’s Brâncuși-inspired sex toys go on display in a new Paris exhibition
Maude’s design-led vibrators are now on display at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, as part of ‘Private Lives: From the Bedroom to Social Media’. Brand founder Éva Goicochea talks to Wallpaper* about partnering with the museum and opening up cultural conversations around sex
By India Birgitta Jarvis Published
-
‘I was captivated by the idea of merging two iconic brands’: Nigo on his 1990s-inspired collaboration with Moncler and Mercedes-Benz
Unveiled at Moncler’s ‘The City of Genius’ event in Shanghai this past weekend, Japanese fashion designer Nigo unpacks his three-way collaboration with Moncler and Mercedes-Benz, which includes a play on the G-Class alongside a fashion collection in his eclectic style
By Jack Moss Published
-
Into the groove: Henriksen House is the UK’s first home extension featuring exposed clay block walls
Architect Michael Henriksen uses textured clay blocks, cork flooring and self-built joinery to transform his family home in St Albans near London
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
This unassuming London house is a radical rethinking of the suburban home
Station Lodge by architect Andrei Saltykov in South West London offers a radical subversion to regional residential architecture
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Elemental House adds a Danish twist to a 1970s London house
Archmongers' Elemental House transforms a 1970s terraced house in London's Hackney into a functional, light-filled, Scandinavian-inspired family home
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
East London's disused gasholders are being reinvented
Regent's View by RSHP reinvents a pair of disused gasholders in east London as contemporary residential space and a publically accessible park
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Meticulously detailed London mews house unveiled by Ampuero Yutronic
Market Mews, a London mews house, is a hymn to modern minimalism, executed with precision and skill to make the most of a tight site in the heart of the capital
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Beacon House’s pink extension brightens up a Victorian London home refresh
A pink extension in north London is part of the Beacon House project by Office S&M – the dramatic refresh of a Victorian home
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Tilde House brings a listed London home up to contemporary, sustainable standards
Tilde House by Neil Dusheiko Architects blends Victorian elegance, sustainability and contemporary flair in north London’s historic Canonbury area
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
This clever Camden house renovation brings light, space and zen
EBBA architects’ Camden house renovation and double-height extension transform life in a London terraced home
By Bridget Downing Published