Leep Architects' house expresses a pleasing clarity and simplicity while sitting comfortably in its rugged local context
Leep Architects for Marcus Lee
Contract value: £287,000
GIA: 155m²
Cost per m²: £1,852
An experimental flexible home, capable of easy adaption between home, office, or a separate studio flat. This flexibility is cleverly afforded by the vertical unheated circulation space or winter garden. As the accommodation can be locked off at each level, the staircase is easily adapted to become a common shared space. This makes for an interesting typology of building and is an ingenious urban response to a tight site.
The building expresses a pleasing clarity and simplicity. It sits comfortably in its rugged local context and deploys an uncomplicated, quasi-industrial material palette of masonry load-bearing walls, untreated steel staircase, exposed screed and open joist floors. The external facade is contextually sensitive. And while the local area demanded a certain level of security, the solution does not feel overly closed. An excellent fabric-first approach to reducing energy consumption is reflected in the low predicted energy use.