House in Highgate Cemetery | Eldridge London

Il progetto House in Highgate Cemetery è stato ideato da Eldridge London Architects per un committente desideroso di realizzare una nuova casa in sostituzione alla villa disegnata nel 1970 dal noto architetto John Winter. L’edificio sorge in estrema prossimità dell’Highgate Cemetery, il più grande cimitero vittoriano di Londra. Nonostante le viste spettacolari oltre il cimitero e la posizione frontale rispetto al Waterlow Park e allo skyline della città, quella di sostituire una casa di John Winter non è stata una decisione presa a cuor leggero. Quando Eldridge Smerin aveva valutato l’opzione di mantenere la struttura in acciaio ormai corrosa o di sostituirla, fu chiaro che restaurare la casa di John Winter avrebbe richiesto una ristrutturazione completa e ne avrebbe compromesso il potenziale per una nuova casa su un sito unico come questo. La casa nuova che ne risulta segue l'impronta della casa esistente. È composta da quattro piani, con generose proporzioni fra zona giorno e notte, balconi, terrazze e un grande lucernario in vetro scorrevole che permette al piano superiore di trasformarsi in una corte a cielo aperto. Verso la strada una diafana facciata di granito nero levigato, vetro traslucido e pannelli in acciaio nero fanno eco all'imponenza delle mura del cimitero conferendo alla casa un’aria di mistero e di intrigo. In contrasto, le pareti che si innalzano di fronte al cimitero sono in gran parte vetrate e inondano l'interno di luce naturale. L'intenzione era di creare una casa con un consumo di energia significativamente più basso rispetto all'edificio preesistente, ma anche con una superficie maggiore. Le caratteristiche del calcestruzzo che risponde lentamente al calore consentono al telaio di agire come un “modificatore” ambientale, rallentando il guadagno di calore in estate e limitandone la perdita in inverno, mentre la forma della casa, con grandi aperture vetrate esposte a sud, permette di massimizzare il guadagno solare passivo durante i mesi invernali. Prima di iniziare i lavori sull’opera di John Winter, Eldridge London aveva promesso a se stesso che non avrebbe provato rancore a lungo nel demolire la casa solo se fosse riuscito a crearne una migliore. Analizzando la nuova casa per la rivista Architecture Today John Winter è stato tanto generoso da affermare che non solo la casa nuova era migliore della sua, ma che non ne vedeva una così tanto vicina alla perfezione da tanto tempo. Il progetto ha vinto il Royal Institute of British Architects Award nel 2009. Inspired by seeing Eldridge London’s Stirling Prize shortlisted house The Lawns, on Highgate Hill in north London, the owner of a nearby house approached the practice about designing a new house on the same site. The existing house dating from the 1970’s was designed by noted Architect John Winter and sat next to Highgate Cemetery, London's greatest Victorian cemetery. Although the site offered spectacular views over the cemetery, Waterlow Park opposite and the city skyline beyond, replacing a John Winter house is a decision not taken lightly. When Eldridge London had investigated options for either retaining the corroding steel structure or for replacement, it was clear that to restore the Winter house would have required complete reconstruction and would have compromised the greater potential for a new house on such a unique site. The resulting new house is located on the footprint of the existing house. It is set over four floors with a generous proportion of living to bedroom space including balconies, terraces and a sizable sliding glass rooflight enabling the top floor to become an open-air court. The new house is an additional storey higher than the previous one and is conceived with two strongly contrasting faces. To the street a sheer façade of honed black granite, translucent glass and black steel panels set flush to one another echoes the massiveness of the cemetery wall. This gives the house an air of mystery and intrigue whilst also making reference to the monumental masonry of the cemetery. In contrast, the elevations facing the cemetery are largely glazed, suffusing the interior with natural light and washing the fair-faced concrete structural frame and walls with sunlight. Unlike the lower part of the cemetery where people often go to see Karl Marx's grave, the upper part where the house is located is overgrown and largely unvisited allowing it to act as a stunning backdrop for the spaces within the house. The full height glazing to the perimeter of the house was enabled by the use of flat concrete slabs with long cantilevers back to the four central columns supporting each floor. The concrete supporting internal and external areas was kept separate to provide a thermal break between inside and out. In contrast to the smooth fair-faced finish of the concrete columns and soffits and the smooth stone flooring, the concrete walls facing the street and adjoining property to the north have a strong horizontal pattern from the timber boards used to shutter the concrete. The use of a concrete frame with a high quality exposed finish internally also allows a more sustainable environmental strategy for the house to be developed than the lightweight construction of the original house allowed. The intention was to produce a house with significantly lower energy usage than the original even with an increased floor area. The slow heat response characteristics of the concrete allow the frame to act as an environmental modifier slowing down heat gain in summer and limiting heat loss in winter whilst the form of the house with large glazed openings facing south allow passive solar gain to be maximised during winter months. The use of stone cladding and a green sedum roof system similarly help control temperature fluctuations. The use of concrete as a structure and finish, when sourced from a local plant that uses a proportion of recycled material, helps minimise the embodied energy in the envelope of the house as does the choice of generally natural materials for the internal finishes. Internally a low temperature hot water underfloor heating system is used in conjunction with the thermal mass of the house to maintain comfortable conditions with minimised energy usage. The high natural light levels mean there is little need for artificial lighting during daylight hours whilst all light fittings use low energy lamps. The interior spaces are linked vertically by a series of large areas of clear glass floor panels which filter daylight from the main sliding rooflight down to the entrance area off the street. Full height frameless pivoted doors veneered in bog aged oak separate the living spaces and bedrooms from the main stair. The stair itself has pre-cast concrete treads cantilevered from the concrete walls each side with a clear glass fin to the centre supporting a stainless steel handrail which is resin bonded to the glass. The fin is formed from two four metre high sheets of toughened laminated glass which were craned into position through a slot created in the roof slab. Bathrooms on each floor are lined with white corian and have white marble floors. Eldridge London were also responsible for designing bespoke joinery and furniture throughout the house. Built-in storage is generally in timber behind white lacquered doors but the Music Room on the first floor has a wall of storage units in high gloss black lacquer and side tables in bog aged oak. The second floor Study features a continuous worksurface formed from and supported by clear frameless toughed glass sheets bonded together. Prior to work starting on site John Winter was philosophical about the demolition of the house he had designed, saying that there would be no hard feelings 'so long as the new house was better'. Reviewing the completed house for Architecture Today magazine John Winter was generous enough to say he felt the new house was both better and 'as near to a faultless building as I have seen for a long time'. Project Team • Architect: Eldridge London ( Nick Eldridge, Piers Smerin, George Dawes, Alison Poole, Amalia Skoufoglou ) • Quantity Surveyor AB Associates • Structural Engineer Elliott Wood Partnership • Services Engineer Mendick Waring • Concrete Consultant David Bennett Associates • Lighting Designer International Lighting Solutions • Home Entertainment/Security SMC Systems Integration • Main Contractor Harris Calnan • Photographer Lyndon Douglas Key Sub-contractors/Suppliers • In-situ concrete: Harris Calnan • Structural Glass: Ide Contracting • Glass Sliding Doors: Fineline Aluminium • Glass Floors : Compass Glass • Sliding glass rooflight: Glazing vision • Grass Roof System: Bauder • Stone cladding/ flooring: G. Miccoli and Son • Steel Mesh: Potter and Soar • Metal Cladding/ Flashings: Dutton Engineering, Brent Fabrications • Doors/ Specialist Joinery : Opus Magnum, 3D Joinery • Kitchen supplier: Bulthaup • Bathroom Fixtures: Alternative Plans • Blinds: Levolux