Skip to content

Reciprocal House
London, UK, 2018—2023

SRP_2111220012-14_send_web

In 1968, the Architect Norman Foster extended a former coach house behind a pub in Hampstead, London, with a lightweight structure of steel, concrete blocks and large span glazing. It is one of the first built structures by Foster & Partners and clearly expresses the approach they would take with an uncompromising simplicity, directness and economy of means. The adjacent coach house was also refurbished at the same time and lived in for over 50 years by the original client.

Pond-Street
pond-st-foster-drawing
Foster's-drawing2
Foster's-drawing3

Drawings by Foster Associates, 1969

History-950x634

Original Foster Associates extension, 1968

pond-st-SR_000359392_send_web

Original Foster Associates extension, 2022

pond-st-SR_000359389_send_web

Original Foster Associates extension, 2022

pond-st-SR_000359582_send_web
pond-st-strait-back-bw
pond-st-strait-N-side-bw
pond-st-strait-front-bw
pond-st-strait-S-side-bw

The project retains the original extension, and replaces the coach house, essentially extending the extension. The new extension, on basement, ground, first and second floors, evokes elements of Foster’s treatment of the coach house and the original roof forms with angled facades, but also responds to the extension in its straightforwardness and careful calibration of space. A reciprocal relationship with the architectural character of the Foster extension is formed by the use of a limited palette of materials, an optimised and exposed concrete structure, and veiled views of the context framed by perforated aluminium sail-like roofs that control privacy, as well as preserving a memory of the original building.

The original extension required upgrading both structurally and environmentally and is returned closely to its original state. Inserted into the exposed concrete frame of the new house are highly crafted aluminium interior elements, formed both digitally and manually, that acknowledge an approach to invention represented in the original extension with a singular use of a material and exploration of the opportunities this affords.

The response to the sensitive and overlooked context is carried out through careful and forensic analysis of the site to determine ways of providing privacy for the occupants of the house and neighbours, long views out to the borrowed landscape of back gardens, access to sunlight and daylight, acoustic separation, and security.

Through the process of reinvention, the evolution of the retained, demolished and newly built structures speak to architectural history, layering and respect.

Diagram-image_Proposal_crop
Diagram image_ProposalB
IMG_1662
GA-00-Basement
GA-01-Ground-Floor
GA-02-First-Floor
GA-03-Second-Floor
GA-04-Roof-Plan
GA-Section
pond-st-SRP_2111220008_send_web
pond-st-SRP_2111220228-30_send_web
pont-st-details-drawing
pont-st-stair

Design Team

  • Gianni Botsford
  • Anahi Copponex
  • James Eagle
  • Arslan Arkallayev
  • Stephanie Aue

Consultants

  • Integration, Mechanical and Electrical Engineer
  • Tall Engineers, Structural Engineer
  • FFLO, Landscape Architect
  • New Wave, Contractor
  • Weber Industries, Metalwork
  • Measur, Quantity Surveyor
  • Barton Wilmore, Planning Consultant
  • HCUK, Heritage Consultant
  • Schnepp Renou, Photography