In South London, a terraced Dulwich house offers a typical street-facing façade, yet its unassuming character conceals a radically transformed residence filled with layers and light. The project, crafted by London-based architecture and interiors practice ConForm, was designed for a father and his two sons. The result is a masterclass on spatial connection and material expression.
Inside Komorebi, a Dulwich house in South London
‘The starting point was the client's brief, which called for an open, connected home where he and his sons can live together, while still having spaces to retreat to and use privately,’ explains Ben Edgley, director at ConForm.
‘Furthermore, the existing property had an unusual centrally placed rooflight and an open kitchen/living room arrangement across a half level. These elements became the catalyst for developing a house organised around light, connection and carefully calibrated separation.’
Nestled within the familiar context of neighbouring terraced homes, this Dulwich house stays true to its original character from the outside, while the interior and rear are entirely new. The design draws inspiration, and its name, from the Japanese concept of komorebi: the quiet, uplifting feeling of dappled sunlight filtering through leaves.
The project's conceptual core was drawn from an unusual, historically, for its typology, feature: an existing skylight filtering daylight deep into the core of the home. ConForm used this element, rather than erasing it. It eventually provided the foundation of the project's entire expression.
Like a paper puzzle, the house unfolds in vertical and horizontal layers. ‘It perfectly captures the gentle quality of light within the home’s central void. Here, light is modulated through perforated metal walkways and washes across crisp white plaster and rough, mortared brickwork, creating a calm, atmospheric interior,’ Edgley tells Wallpaper*.
With light bouncing off the chalk-white brickwork, alongside concrete downstand beams, and perforated steel, the residence is a bright and airy urban retreat. Cohesion and subtle variation are offered throughout the spaces, which include a vaulted glazed study perched on the new, first floor. The ground floor flows seamlessly into each living space with an open counter between the kitchen, dining and living spaces.
For Edgley, it is the quiet complexity of each area that makes the residence intriguing, especially the first-floor landing overlooking the kitchen, which leads into the new study.
He says: 'The connection between spaces here is particularly special: light floods in, and the full material palette is experienced at once,’ he explains. ‘This is where the sense of connection the client sought in the original brief is most tangible, and where the project truly comes together.’