a Contemporary, Rigorous and Surprising Building

With the commission of the Summerhouse, we felt that we were given the opportunity to work on a rarely precedented building type - formally somewhere between an Eames pavillion and a south coast caravan and programmatically neither an extension nor a gardenshed and placed out of rural context. Despite its low budget it was a delightful project to work on and the first completed solo project our practice has undertaken. It won numerous national awards and has been published widely.

The Summerhouse is a seasonal hideaway for a Hackney-based family of four. They all needed more and safe play space as the children are growing older. The new space should serve as a painter's studio, garden shed, table tennis venue and sleep-over place. Developing the somewhat neglected rear of their garden became and alternative to moving away into a larger property.

The construction is rooted in traditional, yet ultra light timber frame detailing that was chosen in accordance with the small budget. However, it is carefully detailed with planed smooth surfaces and controlled, pristine joints that are fully revealed in the interior.

The outside is clad in thin skins. Besides weather protection these surfaces are meant to re-enforce the presence of the garden and to frame the seasons. An 8m long mirror reflects the diverse floral range and defies the solidity and proximity of the wall it is mounted on. Semi-transparent striped polycarbonate interferes with the shadows of the moving leaves above.

“The decisive move is the 8m-long swathe of mirror-foil that completely covers the exterior plywood sheathing of the dog-legged, northern side of the summerhouse. Looking along its length towards the house - which can barely be seen - the viewer is confronted with two floral and herbaceous realities, one orderly and actual, the other warped in both the horizontal and vertical planes. The effect is brilliant, and rendered surreal by the very slim projecting edge of the polycarbonate roof - something absolutely definite set against what might as well be a giant screenful of Photoshop trickery. Baroque? Virtually baroque, at a pinch.” - Jay Merrick, Garden of Minimalist Delights

The summerhouse is a timber structure sitting in the rear of an elongated Victorian garden and the design attempts to screen out this urban setting. Baroque ideas of illusion, distortion, camouflage and capture of nature create a contemporary, rigorous and surprising building.

There is something of the stealth object about the structure, though not in a glibly ironic manner. It offers a form and demeanour that displays precisely arranged materiality, yet gives a glimpse of the charmingly dematerialised.