A celebration of low carbon stone brick

Stone Brick house is a celebration of low carbon limestone brick construction transforming a terraced house in Clapham, South London. Home to a young family, the brief included creating more space for entertaining and relaxing, with references to airy Majorcan villas for inspiration. Utzon’s Can Lis house became a key precedent and we sought to achieve a purity to the architectural design with material restraint and craft using muted natural clay plaster tones, oak and principally the low carbon limestone brick.

The garden sloped downwards and from our first meeting it was decided to lower the floor to create as much height in the space as possible. A voluminous 2.9m was achieved creating the cavernous emotional and architectural core space of the project. Height is amplified with full height doors and roof lights pulling light down over the limestone brick walls. The extension looks on to the intimate rear garden through two articulated openings; a fixed glazed window seat, (with discrete cat flap under) and a pocket sliding door with deep stone brick reveals that offer shading and privacy.

The serene new kitchen features custom units in oak and ample built in storage. Generous roof lights, with oversized timber louvres under, pulls in natural light. A special solid oak island was designed embracing the projects overarching themes of light and air with open shelving and expressed simple construction.

The house’s front rooms and hallway have been opened up and connected with large oak sliding doors creating views and light channels through the house. Principal circulation has been reconfigured with a new stepped, oak lined portal into the lowered kitchen space. The deep reveals echo the framed views of Can Lis whilst containing kitchen pantry and storage functions as you step down on to the soft, sand-toned terracotta floor.