Mews 03

Mews 03 is a single residence set in fashionable Notting Hill Gate. Andy wanted this existing 2 levels modest mews house to be redeveloped into a 4 levels family home, and to be a private cocoon but open to the elements. An important aspect of this building is the way AMA have managed to capture the available light creatively, using glazed and wooden screens, and even natural vegetation screens giving all the spaces a unique atmosphere throughout the day and night. The circulation through the levels is critical. The circulation space is as long as reasonably possible. With sharp changes of direction, the circulation traverses the dimensions of the available volume, providing a powerful sequence of views on the process. The surface materials provide an experience of movement through the building mapping out the route with its slippery black glazed monolith rising through the 4levels. One of the abutting walls is clad throughout with Douglas Fir giving one the impression that the building is some fixed back to neatly constructed barn. AMA are architects of strong powerful contrasts. The architecture not only lives with but is positively by its contradictions: elegance and texture, weight and weightlessness and, above all, light and dark.