Schueco Awards 2018 Individual House Award: Highgate House, London, by Carmody Groarke

Buildings.

Architect: Carmody Groarke

Main contractor: New Wave

Specialist contractor: Alco Glass Systems

Schueco systems/products: FW 50+ SG, AWS 70.HI, ADS 70.HI

Photos: Hélène Binet

Designed by Carmody Groarke, this four-bedroom house is sited in a leafy suburb of north London. The 525-square-metre project is configured so as to forge a strong relationship between the external form and internal spatial composition. The plan is organised around a large double-height hall. Fluid, open-plan family spaces occupy the ground floor with more private cellular rooms above. To the south of the hall is a swimming pool, while to the north and east are the kitchen, living and dining rooms, and a garage. A first-floor gallery provides views down into the hall and access to bedrooms. The treatment of thresholds between interior and exterior space varies greatly in scale and proportion according to each room’s physical and visual connection to the street, garden and Highgate Wood beyond. Intended to complement the suburban context as well as reinforce associations with traditional crafting, loadbearing brick is used extensively both inside and out. Bold massing is combined with large, recessed windows to create an abstract aesthetic.