Local studio GS Architecture has completed its renovation and extension of a family home in Hampstead Heath, London, updating it to meet low-energy Passivhaus standards.

Named Hampstead Passive House, the semi-detached Victorian home was overhauled to create a more comfortable, light-filled dwelling with significantly reduced energy consumption.

GS Architecture set out to achieve the rigorous Passivhaus EnerPHit standard, which certifies low-energy buildings that have been refurbished with high levels of insulation and airtightness.

It upgraded the house with improved insulation and triple-glazed windows, while introducing solar panels, low-energy lighting and a mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system.

“Sustainability was central to the brief – the clients were committed to creating a home that performed as efficiently as possible, and Passivhaus EnerPHit offered a clear and ambitious benchmark for the project,” GS Architecture partner Guy Stansfeld told Dezeen.

“A fabric-first approach underpinned the design, with careful attention given to insulation, airtightness and breathability,” added Stansfeld.

“The use of wood fibre insulation and traditional lime plaster was key, allowing the existing building shell to be made airtight while still breathable.”

As part of the project, GS Architecture replaced the home’s existing conservatory and extensions with a new timber-framed addition.

Topped with a wildflower green roof, this rear extension houses an open-plan kitchen and dining space, with timber doors opening out into the garden.

Inside, the space combines a variety of timber elements, including the kitchen island and cupboard fittings, the dining table and a built-in bookcase.

Timber finishes appear alongside reclaimed materials such as old snooker-table slate used for the kitchen worktops, complete with original brass studs and pocket cutouts.

Other reclaimed and repurposed elements include salvaged floorboards used to line the extension’s ceiling and for internal door facings, while cupboard doors are made from former cheese-manufacturing boards.

According to the studio, new materials and finishes were carefully selected to avoid petrochemical-based products. Clay from the rear garden was mixed into the lime-based paint for the walls, contributing to its natural look.

A wide opening connects the kitchen-dining room to a sitting room beyond, complete with the same pale timber flooring, natural palette and matching bookshelves.

Working alongside GS Architecture, designer Boris Vervoordt introduced a palette based on the Japanese design philosophy of Wabi-sabi, which celebrates imperfection.

Existing features were preserved to retain the home’s character, including the original curving timber staircase.

Upstairs are three bedrooms, complete with the same pared-back palette, with pale timber cupboards and floorboards, and a neutral colour scheme.

“Texture plays a leading role in shaping the atmosphere of the home,” said Stansfeld. “Lime plaster walls create a subtle sense of movement and warmth,” he described.

“Natural materials such as timber, slate and limestone add depth and variation, while the colour palette remains grounded and earthy.”

In the bathrooms, dark tiles are paired with dark Tadelakt walls and ceilings, a traditional Moroccan waterproof plaster, chosen by the studio for its natural breathability.

Other homes designed to Passivehaus standards recently featured on Dezeen include a house in Chile featuring multiple courtyards and “the largest Passive House building in Canada”.

The photography is by Matt Clayton.

Project credits:

Architect: GS Architecture
Energy consultant: Ecospheric
Structural engineer: MBOK
Kitchen joinery: Brockhampton
Main contractor: OLF Construction
Interior design: Axel Vervoordt Co

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Glass blocks and rammed earth were among the unconventional materials used to create the most popular houses featured on Dezeen in April.

Also included in our monthly roundup of our readers’ favourite residences is a home constructed from black concrete and another framed by perforated brickwork.

Read on for Dezeen’s top five houses of April 2026:

The Corner House, Australia, by Ian Moore Architects

The Corner House is one of two homes on this list that incorporate glass blocks in their facades.

Designed by Ian Moore Architects, the project transforms a 19th-century pub in Sydney, which later became a corner shop, into a three-bedroom home.

The studio used the glass bricks to form “a wall of light” that glows from within at night and marks the distinction between the new and old.

Find out more about this house ›

Casa Tupin, Brazil, by Bloco Arquitetos

This month’s most popular house was Casa Tupin, completed by Bloco Arquitetos in Brasília.

It is wrapped by walls of perforated brickwork that filter natural light and air, and enfolds a large central courtyard that serves as both a leisure space and a connective core.

Find out more about this house ›

A House Born of Four Soils, India, by Hiren Patel Architects + Design

Aptly named A House Born of Four Soils, this home on the outskirts of Ahmedabad features walls of rammed earth made with sand from four different regions.

“Its striated bands do not just form walls; they are geological canvases, capturing the warm, dusty hues of the local soil,” the studio told Dezeen.

Find out more about this house ›

Light House, the Netherlands, by Studioninedots

The second dwelling on this list that is distinguished by glass bricks is Light House, which Studioninedots built in a new neighbourhood in Amsterdam.

Studioninedots used the blocks to lend an industrial aesthetic to the home, while also helping to fulfil the client’s request for a light-filled interior.

Find out more about this house ›

Casa Mavra, Mexico, by Taller Alberto Calleja

Black-pigmented concrete defines the angular forms of the 1,300-square-metre Casa Mavra, designed by Taller Alberto Calleja in the Mexican town of Valle de Bravo.

The X-shaped home was designed as a “sculptural architectural object” that simultaneously blends in with the surrounding landscape, which is covered in dense woodland.

Find out more about this house ›

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In this week’s comments update, readers are discussing the arched entrance added by Japanese studio Kengo Kuma to Angers Cathedral in France.

Unveiled earlier this month, the concrete arches double as a gallery, and frame the medieval sculptural doorway on the west side of the Angevin Gothic-style cathedral.

“A beautiful face wearing a VR headset”

The juxtaposition of the modern arches with the original doorway stoked plenty of debate in the comments this week.

“It’s very disappointing,” wrote Grace Plus. “The design reduces the all important central medieval doorway – the focus of the design problem – to an incidental, secondary event.”

Similarly dissatisfied, David Chase Martin wrote, “The arches should have stood alone as pure objects, the flat top is completely antithetical.”

Commenter Winterberg agreed, “The cathedral looks like a beautiful face wearing a VR headset.”

Other readers took a more practical approach. “Proportionally and graphically it makes logical sense, but the arches do not speak to the engineering that made these churches so impressive,” said Michael Wigle.

For Architect Incognito, “a more unassuming, sturdy but elegantly detailed and put together oak structure could have done the job as well and would have left a bit more room for the cathedral to breathe.”

Still, some commenters were pleased with the design, with Mari Fisher writing, “I can see how the arches repeat and reflect the shapes in the cathedral, and I was delighted by the visual framing of the pieces inside.”

“I like that it seems to be completely disengaged from the original building,” said Heywood Floyd.

What’s your take? Join the discussion ›

“How about coloring the trees red and making the grass white?”

Also causing a stir in the comments section this week was US president Donald Trump’s plans to repaint the base of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC.

The majority of readers were unimpressed by the decision, with most using it as an chance to crack jokes.

“Anyone worried this is gonna look like mouthwash?” questioned Ghost of Mike Brady, while A1 asked, “how about colouring the trees red and making the grass white?”

Other commenters were more measured in their assessment, critiquing president Trump’s proposed repair methods.

“If the reflecting pool is truly leaking then the granite base should be refurbished and relaid over new membrane and mechanical lines,” wrote Frank Lloyd Wrong, “Painting granite is a sin.”

In a similar vein, JZ added, “Wait, he doesn’t just want to install mirrors (or polished brass a la Trump Tower lobby)? No leaks… hell, no water or electricity bill after that.”

For BT76, “Making the bottom so bright kinda defeats the whole “reflecting” part of the reflecting pool. This is the equivalent of a flipper painting a mid century brick house white with black trim.”

What do you think? Join the discussion ›

“Uitmuntend Studioninedots”

Readers were overwhelmingly positive towards Dutch practice Studioninedots’ five-storey home in Amsterdam, which was wrapped with glass bricks and metal grilles.

Ferran Espin had nothing but praise, “elegant and pleasant use of space, materials and natural light.”

David Chase Martin was on the same page, writing, “uitmuntend Studioninedots,” which translates to a laudatory “excellent, Studioninedots” in English.

Reader Marius was similarly positive though offered his own suggestions, “I like the house although the ceramic tile kitchen island reminds me of the project done a long time ago that taught us not to use tiles with grouted joints on the counter (ever).

Other readers were more observational. Andrew S.t.y.l.ish said, “Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre comes to mind,” referring to the early modern steel and glass house located in Paris.

What’s your take? Join the discussion ›

Comments update

Dezeen is the world’s most commented architecture and design magazine, receiving thousands of comments each month from readers. Keep up to date on the latest discussions on our comments page and subscribe to our weekly Debate newsletter, where we feature the best reader comments from stories in the last seven days.

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In this episode of Dezeen Weekly, we reflect on the major trends from this year’s Milan design week, and discuss whether the festival has reached peak “brandification”.

Why did food and inflatables have such a big presence in Milan this year? Could there be a link to the geopolitical issues gripping the globe?

Also, did this year mark a tipping point for corporate installations? And is the involvement of fashion houses and other brands at design week a problem?

For this, episode Dezeen features editor Nat Barker was joined by deputy editor Cajsa Carlson and design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield.

Dezeen Weekly artwork is by Simon Volt.

Dezeen Weekly is an original Dezeen podcast in which our journalists talk about the key design and architecture stories of the week. Listen to the latest episode using the player above or on your favourite podcast app, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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Architectural designer John Pawson described how teaching, taking photographs and travelling the world led him to architecture during a talk at Gaggenau‘s installation at this year’s Milan design week, hosted and filmed by Dezeen.

During the talk, titled The Art of Simplicity, the British designer spoke to Dezeen’s editorial director Max Fraser about the path he took into architecture and design, shared stories from his career and explained what it means in practice to live in one of his minimalist homes.

Speaking to an audience in Villa Necchi Campiglio‘s glass house, where Gaggenau had created a minimal installation called Presence, Pawson described how he was initially dissuaded from pursuing architecture.

“I couldn’t do maths, so I thought that precluded me from becoming an architect,” he said.

As a young man, Pawson spent a period of time living in Japan, where he taught English at a university in Nagoya and toyed with the idea of becoming a Zen Buddhist monk

“[My mother] wanted me to be a missionary or something like that,” he said. “So of course I chose to try and be a monk in Japan on the top of a mountain.”

While living in the country and travelling around the region during the long university holidays, he developed an interest in photography, with photographs from the period eventually forming the content of a 2017 book called Spectrum, published by Phaidon Press.

“After working for my father for six years and travelling around the world, I finally went to school at 30,” he said.

Quizzed on whether he felt pigeonholed by his popular image as “Mr Minimalism”, Pawson stated that he didn’t mind.

“Please call me anything you like,” he said. “If you protest too much, you get into trouble.”

“It’s quite funny that every other architect in the world disagrees with that description of themselves,” he continued. “I’m the only one that owns up to it.”

Despite his reputation for austere minimalism, he stressed that he is not evangelistic about minimal approaches to living.

“I’m not a proselytizer,” said Pawson. “I mean, I’ve been doing the work for myself really, I’m not trying to change things for other people.”

“I have very strong ideas myself, but it’s not that everyone should live like that.”

Asked where he keeps his belongings in his famously uncluttered home, he offered: “deep cupboards.”

“The idea is not to have more than you need,” he continued. “But of course it’s impossible to achieve that one hundred percent.”

He went on to discuss his approach to compromise and his softening approach to client relationships.

“It’s always been no compromise,” Pawson said. “That’s always been the idea.”

“Of course, the clients are always trying to persuade you that compromise is good.”

He also stressed the importance of the having good clients and commended them for their part in the architectural process.

“You know, the adage that the client is always right is not a bad one, because you can’t do a project without a client,” he said.

“They have a lot of dynamicism and ideas. You tend to learn more from them than they learn from you. I mean, they can’t put the thing together, but you know…”

The conversation also touched on questions of scale, of both Pawson’s studio and the projects that it takes on.

“The studio has remained, for the most part, around 20 people, and half of those have been with me for 25 years,” he said.

“We tend not to do competitions,” he stated. “If you do competitions, which you need to do for the big jobs, then you need a bigger team, and if you get the big job, then you need an even bigger team.”

He described his continued interest in designing homes, questioning the idea that they are stressful and unprofitable projects for architects.

“The private house is something that’s endlessly fascinating for me because they’re so complex, and you’re dealing with people for whom it’s very personal and emotional,” he said.

Asked what advice he would offer to young designers today, Pawson simply stated the importance of doing what you like.

“The things to enjoy it,” he said. “There hasn’t been one minute where I’ve been bored for 40 years.”

Gaggenau was founded in 1683. Based in Germany, the brand is represented in more than 50 countries, with 60 flagships and showrooms worldwide.

Dezeen has previously teamed up with Gaggenau to host filmed talks during the brand’s biennial presentations at Villa Necchi Campiglio during Milan design week in 2022 and 2024.

More recently, Dezeen collaborated with Gaggenau to host a filmed talk in its flagship showroom in Dubai, which was also moderated by Fraser.

Partnership content

This talk was filmed and produced by Dezeen as part of a partnership with Gaggenau. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

The post “I never set out to be an architect” says John Pawson at Gaggenau talk appeared first on Dezeen.

Design festivals NYCxDesign, Global Design Forum Istanbul and London Craft Week are among the architecture and design events featured in Dezeen Events Guide this May.

Other events taking place during the month include Melbourne Design Week, Design March, Clerkenwell Design Week and Frieze New York.

DesignMarch
6 to 10 May, Iceland

Hosting its 18th edition, DesignMarch returns with a five-day programme following the theme Connections, exploring the human need for meaningful connections and its impact on communities and urban design.

The Reykjavík-based festival hosts exhibitions, talks, tours and workshops, including the DesignTalks series that explores diversity in the industry at the Harpa concert hall.

London Craft Week
11 to 17 May, UK

London Craft Week returns for its 2026 edition with a showcase of around 1,000 established and emerging makers, designers, brands and galleries from across the world.

The annual festival highlights crafts across sculpture, glass, jewellery, ceramics, interior design, mosaic, embroidery, decorative painting, weaving, woodworking, 3D printing and restoration.

During the seven days, attendees can choose from a range of events, including fairs, exhibitions, demonstrations, courses, performances and markets.

Global Design Forum Istanbul
13 to 16 May, Turkey

This year, the Global Design Forum hosts its annual platform event in Istanbul, debuting its new city-wide programme of talks, installations and a design competition over four days.

This edition follows the theme Worlds in Contact, hosting two days of panels and conversations featuring international industry experts.

Previously part of London Design Festival, the Forum will also extend to host fringe events celebrating the culture of Istanbul, spotlighting the intersections of innovation and tradition.

Frieze New York
13 to 17 May, USA

Art fair Frieze New York celebrates its 14th anniversary this year, hosting its sixth consecutive edition at The Shed in Manhattan, featuring global artists, galleries and collectors.

Among the exhibitors are major international institutions, such as Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth and Galerie Perrotin, as well as emerging names Campeche, Ulrik and Gordon Robichaux, who are taking part in the Focus section for galleries operating for 12 years or less.

The event also acts as a city-wide activation for museums and galleries across New York City featured in Frieze Week. Participating institutions include the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA PS1.

Melbourne Design Week
14 to 24 May, Australia

Melbourne Design Week returns with 10 days of exhibitions, workshops, talks, tours and product launches.

The 1oth anniversary of the Australian festival follows the call to action ‘Design the world you want’, including smaller-scale and globally-influential projects.

Introducing the themes Living legacy, Australian-made, Luminaries, Design futures and Circularity, this edition emphasises local culture and heritage, community focus, environmental sustainability and source replenishment.

NYCxDesign
14 to 20 May, USA

Annual festival NYCxDesign hosts its 14th edition in 2026, celebrating architecture, technology, art and design through a week of events spanning across various locations in New York City.

The programme features fairs, exhibitions, award galas, parties, talks, launches, tours and pop-up markets, including the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF).

Dezeen has launched a digital guide for the festival, accompanied by an interactive map pinpointing the key events.

Clerkenwell Design Week
19 to 21 May, UK

London-based festival Clerkenwell Design Week features participation from over 200 showrooms and more than 16 exhibition venues across London’s Clerkenwell neighbourhood.

Over three days, visitors can attend talks, exhibitions, workshops, open showrooms, launches and parties around the EC1 area.

The 15th edition of Clerkenwell Design Week also launches the Design Interventions installation series, the result of an open call to architects and designers.

About Dezeen Events Guide

Dezeen Events Guide is our guide to the best architecture and design events taking place across the world each year. The guide is updated weekly and includes virtual events, conferences, trade fairs, major exhibitions and design weeks.

Inclusion in the guide is free for basic listings, with events selected at Dezeen’s discretion. Organisers can get standard, enhanced or featured listings for their events, including images, additional text and links, by paying a modest fee.

In addition, events can ensure inclusion by partnering with Dezeen. For more details on inclusion in Dezeen Events Guide and media partnerships with Dezeen, email eventsguide@dezeen.com.

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Check out Dezeen Events Guide’s digital guide to NYCxDesign 2026 – the annual festival that brings installations, exhibitions, showrooms, talks, and product launches to New York City.

This year’s edition celebrates the festival’s 14th anniversary and takes place from 14 to 20 May, spanning across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

The programme spotlights a range of design disciplines, with highlights including the ICFF and Afternoon Light design fairs.

Use our interactive map

This year’s guide also features a curated map with the key events of the festival, helping you navigate your way around the city.

There is still the opportunity to feature in the guide

There are three types of listings still available:

Standard listings cost £150 ($200) and include the event name, date and location details plus a website link. These listings will feature up to 50 words of text about the event.

Enhanced listings cost £200 ($275) and include all of the above, plus an image at the top of the listing’s page and a preview image on the Dezeen Events Guide homepage. These listings will also feature up to 100 words of text about the event.

Featured listings cost £400 ($550) and include the elements of an enhanced listing plus a post on Dezeen’s Threads channel, inclusion in the featured events carousel on the right hand of the homepage for up to two weeks and 150 words of text about the event. This text can include commercial information such as ticket prices and offers, and can feature additional links to website pages such as ticket sales and newsletter signups.

For more details about partnering with us to help amplify your event, contact the team at eventsguide@dezeen.com.

About Dezeen Events Guide

Dezeen Events Guide is our guide to the best architecture and design events taking place across the world each year.

The guide is updated weekly and includes events, conferences, trade fairs, major exhibitions and design weeks.

The illustration is by Justyna Green.

The post Dezeen Events Guide launches digital guide to NYCxDesign 2026 appeared first on Dezeen.

The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features the longest bridge in Finland. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now.

Engineering firm WSP and London studio Knight Architects completed one of the world’s longest bridges in Finland, which will be used solely by public transport, pedestrians and cyclists.

This week’s newsletter also included news that athletes wearing Adidas’ Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3s set world record times at the London Marathon, Donald Trump’s plans to line the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in blue and Nike opening of a permanent laboratory in Milan.

Dezeen Agenda

Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Thursday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features the hottest reader comments and most-debated stories, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design.

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US studio Faulkner Architects has clad a low-profile mountain house in corrugated Corten steel for wildfire resilience in Northern California.

Known as the Pine Flat Residence, the three-bedroom house is spread over two storeys and is embedded in a steep slope in Healdsburg, about an hour north of San Francisco.

The remote site was originally the home of an off-grid house that was destroyed in the 2019 Kincade Fire.

The clients hired Faulkner Architects, which has offices in California and Colorado, to create a durable, low-maintenance home with a long lifecycle, embracing the character of the nearby Pine Flat community, a boomtown in the Mayacamas Mountains that flourished with quicksilver and mercury mining in the 1870s.

It was designed to emphasise the landscape and be durable in the event of future fires.

“This project exemplifies how residential architecture can transcend aesthetic considerations,” Faulkner Architects said, explaining that the house is a tool for living on the site. “As we continue to expand into wild landscapes through development, we must enhance construction systems and materials to withstand disasters.”

Faulkner Architects reused the existing concrete foundation and walls of the destroyed house to retain embodied energy and limit excavation on the steep terrain.

A long volume with a shed roof that mimics the slope and aligns with the ridgeline. The garage angles out from the rectangular main house and caps a workshop space that is embedded into the hillside on the lower level.

“Like stepping on a leaf, portions extending beyond the outline of the new rectangle are utilized for a sculptural entry step as well as a glazed light well,” the studio said.

“The preserved concrete foundation is half buried into the hillside, juxtaposed with the outstretched protective structure elevated above.”

Designed for accessibility, an entry ramp extends from the western access point to the main level with the primary bedroom, living and dining spaces.

A pre-framed elevator core allows for wheelchair access – when needed in the future – to the lower level with extra bedrooms, service spaces and areas for the residents to be creative.

The upper main level centres a concrete chimney in a wall of windows that open to a wrapping porch – a reminder of the fire, the studio explained.

This is juxtaposed with an artesian water basin on the west side of the house that “fosters a visual and poetic dialogue to honor the site’s spring water”.

The fire-resistive Corten steel shell, sliding ember screens and exterior sprinklers over the decks were all put in place to mitigate the risks of fire damage, while the home uses off-grid utilities – including an upgraded solar array – to embrace passive survivability.

In addition to wastewater treated in a septic field, the design captures and retains 100 per cent of the site’s stormwater with a cantilevered gutter that flows into a steel basin, diverts runoff to a bioretention area and cascades into a retention pond that can be used as a backup firefighting water source.

“Spring-fed wells provide all water usage, including a dedicated tank for the fire hydrant and sprinkler system,” the studio said. “The concrete basin captures water after it is harnessed by a Pelton wheel for supplementary hydroelectric power, offering a continually refreshed basin for cooling dips.”

Designing around fire risks and the celebration of water are constant elements in Faulkner Architect’s practice.

The studio recently centred a Nevada house around a large water basin and used noncombustible materials for a Lake Tahoe cabin.

The photography is by Joe Fletcher.

Project credits:

Faulkner Architects design team: Greg Faulkner, Jag Kievenaar, Jenna Shropshire,Owen Wright, Daniel Thompson, Lesa Faulkner, Chris Carbajal, David Regina, Kirt Hilker
Architecture and interior design: Faulkner Architects
Contractor: Annadel Builders, INC
Civil engineer: Summit Engineering
Structural engineer: Strandberg Engineering
Mechanical engineer: Sugarpine Engineering
Electrical engineer: Sugarpine Engineering
Geotechnical engineer: RGH Consultants
Landscape: Terremoto
Lighting: O-Lighting
Surveyor: Munselle Civil Engineering
CALGreen: Soldata Energy Consulting

The post Faulkner Architects designs California house around fire and water appeared first on Dezeen.

A monochrome palette of wood and metal marks out this low-lying house in Britain’s only desert, designed by architecture practice Hollaway Studio as an evolution of its dilapidated predecessor.

Named Westview Cottage, the home is located in Dungeness, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on the coast of Kent with strict limitations on development.

As with all new buildings in Dungeness, the home was required to closely follow the footprint and mass of the building that had stood there before.

According to Hollaway Studio, the original building was a 1940s house with a cramped, closed-off plan and numerous structural issues, which required it to be rebuilt in its entirety.

To optimise the available space while meeting site restrictions, the studio designed the replacement to encompass both the footprint of the original home and its eight adjoining outbuildings and timber sheds.

The final design reimagines the home as a series of open-plan living spaces that take advantage of its privileged position in Dungeness, maximising views of and access to the landscape, while introducing three spacious bedrooms.

“We first met Tom and Yvette in the original property, sitting in a faceless living room with extremely low floor-to-ceiling height and no aspect or connection to the outside or concept of your location,” the studio told Dezeen.

“The existing property was a dilapidated dwelling with a main span dating back to circa 1940, suffering from asbestos, leaks and structural failure,” it continued.

“In order to achieve Tom and Yvette’s brief and programme, we looked to incorporate the footprint of the connecting outbuildings into the body of the house and maximised the possibility of the existing form and volume.”

Westview Cottage is not the studio’s first project in Dungeness. It joins Pobble House, completed in 2014, and Windwhistle – a restoration of an old railway carriage dwelling that is in development.

Hollaway studio said Westview Cottage builds on valuable lessons the studio learned from Pobble House about materiality when designing in Dungeness’s harsh environment.

“Pobble added a new approach to thinking about materiality, detailing and creating an object in an incredibly harsh environment that improves with age and as it weathers,” it explained.

“We wanted to build on this legacy, looking for an architecture which will contribute to the story of Dungeness,” it continued. “We believe that architecture should be full of narrative coming from an understanding of place.”

For Westview Cottage, the studio looked to local vernacular, including timber shacks and railway structures, to develop its material palette.

It is finished externally with a mix of charred and white-coated timber, treated for durability, alongside corrugated metal and corten steel.

This mix of materials helps the home read as a series of separate forms, playing on the ad-hoc appearance of the original dwelling and its outbuildings, which the client wanted to preserve.

“Whilst they wanted us to create a modern internal open-plan family home, with good connectivity between the living spaces, they still enjoyed and wanted to maintain the ad-hoc nature of the existing property, its numerous adaptations, which really is very stereotypical of dwellings of this age in Dungeness,” the studio said.

Inside, Westview Cottage has been reconfigured to open up to the house to westward views. The entrance leads directly into the main living area, providing immediate views of a lighthouse and the horizon beyond.

Alongside the front door is a utility space, with the main bedroom positioned beyond it to enjoy the same “hierarchical benefits” and views as the main living space.

The living room connects directly to the kitchen and dining space to the south, which contains a seating area with direct access to the garden and views of another lighthouse.

According to the studio, the entire plan was developed to balance openness and privacy.

“Westview Cottage is all about how it reacts to the place, offering privacy but maintaining views,” said the studio.

Interior finishes include a salt-and-pepper-hued concrete floor, formed with local aggregate to act as an extension of the shingle beach outside. This is teamed with other white-washed and oiled natural timbers throughout, alongside crisp, polished plasterwork.

The project is complete with a “standalone retreat building” containing additional living space and storage.

Dungeness is home to many architecturally interesting buildings. Elsewhere, London studio Johnson Naylor created a holiday home on the site of a radar station and converted a world war two pumping station into a holiday home.

In 2020, a crowdfunding campaign to save artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s cottage in Dungeness from being sold to a private owner was successful.

The photography is by Charles Hosea.

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