North Road, Potters Bar

When we were approached to design a collection of high quality houses on a tight site it was critical to maximize the limited space and create a sensitive journey from the public street, to the courtyard and finally to the privacy of the home. Houses had to be pushed to the edge of the site in order to allow for vehicular parking and turning, which led to private gardens being positioned in between the buildings. A hyberbolic paraboloid roof was carefully designed to minimize the overshadowing on neighbouring gardens and allow for light to get to the private courtyards.

A ground floor brick wall forms the ’plinth’ to an elevated and ‘floating’ corten or similar clad first floor. The bold front elevation has gates, doors, and windows punched into the deep brick wall allowing glimpses into small private courtyard gardens or into the houses themselves.

In plan the rooms predominantly open onto their respective side gardens while natural light is bought in through roof lights and down to ground floor via the double height atrium and stairwell.