Arbour House is a north London home that lies low but punches high

Trust architect Andrei Saltykov to turn a tricky site into a winning proposition – Arbour House, his latest residential scheme in North London's Crouch End, is a fitting follow-up to his growing portfolio, which includes the acclaimed Station Lodge that made use of a former garage in an awkwardly shaped and positioned South London plot.

With Arbour House, even more challenges emerged. The site, a former workshop, has fairly restricted access from the street, had encountered planning opposition before and had remained derelict for years, so it was in a pretty bad condition. Saltykov, who heads London-based practice Lacey+Saltykov Architects / ASaP, saw opportunity within this seemingly tricky context- the site is engulfed in nature within a peaceful pocket of suburban residences.

Aiming for a home that is deeply connected with nature and offers a meaningly architectural experience, while at the same time remains discreet to its neighbours, Saltykov crafted a low-lying structure with a distinctive, angular, timber roof.

He explains in a written statement: 'Conceived as a holistic object including both the pavilion-like house and the plot on which it sits, the section follows the natural slope of the site’s topography with a continuous split in floor levels arranged around three separate flights of stairs in the middle. The linear plan is driven by the sun path – the morning side with bedrooms and lightwells to the East; the evening side with communal spaces and a garden to the West.'

'The floating grid of the undulating timber roof sits on a simple rectangular plan and creates two distinct zones on the main upper floor – a lower intimate living area and a taller, more open dining. Its structure extends out to create a strong visual rhythm and a nod to the semi-industrial history of the site.'

Arbour House is spread across two levels – the ground floor, a piano nobile that contains a flowing living space with social and entertaining areas that feel pleasingly open to the surrounding foliage, and a lower level, snugly nestled into the ground. The latter houses four generous bedrooms and a study, alongside bathrooms and auxiliary spaces.

The structure is topped by an eye-catching floating timber roof – the architecture piece's signature feature. '[It] ties everything together, resulting in two different clear heights on the main level: low and intimate in the living room, generous and airy above the kitchen and dining space,' the architect writes.

'The walls and the roof are aligned on two different grids that meet at the key intersections and extend out creating a visual rhythm and strong, graphic shadows. Clearstory windows contained within the depth of the roof structure around the perimeter bring plenty of daylight inside without additional overheating. Undulating profiles of the timber beams create a strong interior theme and a series of traditional pitches above for managing rainwater with a nod to the semi-industrial history of the site.'

To ensure this is an environmentally conscious home, the architect aimed to counterbalance the high embodied impact of creating a basement. The glulam roof is a low-emissions element, while careful light and ventilation strategies, when it came to openings and orientation, helped reduce the embodied carbon in MEP systems. High-performance insulation allows the home to address air-tightness for better thermal comfort and spend - producing a home that follows key sustainable architecture principles.

The project took over a decade to complete, but it was all worth it, Saltykov says: 'It is three Summer Olympics; six UK Prime Ministers; one life of an architectural practice and 1/5th of my own life since I first visited the site of what is now Arbour House. I showed the first sketches of the scheme to the client just before Christmas 2015.'

'The diagram did not change since then – a linear plan with dug-in, east-facing bedrooms and private courtyards below, and a communal upper floor opening west to the garden and afternoon sun.'

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