A combination of practical and theatrical ideas informed the design of this small residence in Holland Park. Within the dimension (five by six metres) and conservation constraints of working in a traditional London mews, excavation was the only option for expansion. The resulting three-storey arrangement produces a generous room on each floor, connected by a straight flight stair on the party wall. The conversation between the minimal dwelling, exemplified by the ‘existenz minimum’ of the wagon-lit sleeping cabins of French railways, and the spatial luxury of the double height of the artist’s studio have been preoccupations since the Studio House in Chelsea of 1975.
The section is a key ingredient. The traditional ‘area’ is set into the volume of the house, creating a double height to the kitchen below and a buffer between the living room and the street outside. A second double height on the garden side, connecting the living room spatially to the bedroom above. These overlapping volumes create continuity between the three floors and an unexpected generosity in the vertical dimension.
The two staircases create a compressed circuit of circulation as further relief to the tight dimensions of the plan. The floors to the ground and basement, the staircases and external terraces are all finished in Jura Limestone, giving an impression of solidity and a sense of the new basement having been carved out of the solid ground.
There are two pairs of generous steel sliding doors – one on the ground floor, opening up the living room to the terrace, and the other in the basement where the corner of the plan has been dissolved between the courtyard and the kitchen. The doors slide perpendicular to one another. Open, they disappear into pockets, and when closed they define the two rectangular spaces.
The vaulted ceiling to the bedroom completes the section. Only three principle pieces of furniture are anticipated – a bed, a sofa and a table, each related to the function of the three floors.
As to the exterior, the majority fo the neighbouring mews cottages had been replaced and gentrified earlier in the last century. The original aperture for the nineteenth-century stable doors could be detected in the street wall prior to demolition. The conservation officer’s wish to maintain this vestige was not inconsistent with a large opening to introduce daylight to the basement below. However, there was less accord about its manner.