Within an area of 57 sqm, we have sought to achieve the maximum practicality, flexibility and sense of space. By designing the external terrace as a room to be used throughout the year, the enclosure becomes both an extension of the living room and an essential place of respite from the city. Comfortably seating a family table for a Sunday lunch, this generously double height space is carefully lit at night, protected from the elements, and lushly planted with evergreen shrubs. By borrowing views of the planting to neighbouring flats, the design helps to both frame and soften the relationship to the city.

Set within the volume of the double-height terrace is a ‘tree-house’ like annex space. Inspired by the ad-hoc extensions that the Victorians would suspend outside windows to give their babies some fresh air, the tree-house is a small but perfectly formed mezzanine that can be used in many ways: a place to think, work, play or dream.

The entrance lobby contains storage areas for bikes, prams and services. The bathrooms and laundry areas have been located where most needed, right between the bedrooms. A reduced height for the bathroom pods allows high level storage nooks and crannies.

Shown left, a view of  four typical homes, illustrating the inherent flexibility of the design, as well as the overlap of the volumes of the terrace and ‘tree-house’ annex space. Examples of four tenancy types are shown, testing how the spaces might be occupied.

A generous floor to soffit height to the terraces brings in plenty of daylight and a sense of luxury to the interior spaces. The tree-house area combines with that of the adjacent room to facilitate an increased flexibility, creating numerous options for occupation.