Camden Workshop

Greater London, England, United Kingdom

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Shouldham Street

Camden Workshop

Greater London, England, United Kingdom

Firm

Henning Stummel

Type

Residential › Private House
Commercial › Office

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2012

SIZE

1000 sqft - 3000 sqft

BUDGET

$500K - 1M

Winner of the RIBA London Housing Award 2014

This secluded site, set within an urban Victorian block, is accessed via a passage through a Victorian Terrace house. The building is at garden level, about two meters below the made up street level. Historically the development of this plot came about by spanning a roof between existing adjacent buildings. This was done incrementally over time and with the help of a delicate steel frame. Whist the existing structure was in a derelict state, we really liked the beautiful well lit space, the delicate structure and the peace and tranquility of this place. The brief then turned to retaining these qualities in a well insulated contemporary rebuild and making this space work as a residential home.

Rather than carving up the main space of the building we decided to keep the main 'industrial' space as capacious as possible and to juxtapose the scale of the domestic bed and bathrooms by turning these into an oversize sculpture, a composition of ply wood boxes set within the larger space. To set the scene, we let the visitor enter through a minute door into a dark passage way. On opening the luminescent glazed doors at the end of this corridor you find yourself at the top of a wide set of stairs overlooking the large tranquil top lit space and at the far end you see the composition of plywood boxes.