Open Architecture Network

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

WAG have recently been granted a planning permission for a two bedroom house in Homerton, East London. The proposed ecologically sustainable building is of largely timber construction, with solar water heating panels incorporated into a roofscape that combines a green grass lawn with a retractable glass window which opens onto a sunken ‘Lautner’ lounge-courtyard below. Tanks in the basement deal with rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling. Sensors within the house will control the internal environment through controlled passive heating and ventilating systems (opening/closing windows and blinds)

The building, whose mass is a near perfect cube, is developed as an assemblage of material, systems, technologies, spaces, encased in a CADCAM patterned and perforated timber shell. This shell itself contains and organises articulated terrazzo hybrids of victorian moldings and architectural elements. These are cast from CADCAM produced concrete formwork. WAG have prototyped related techniques on previous jobs, such as Central YMCA and Kenworthy Rd, and have run numerous workshops with students researching these techniques, supported by the Concrete Centre.

This two storey scheme is a resubmission of a previous three storey proposal.