Micro-light
House in miniature, Booth Road, London NW9
By offering an efficient spatial arrangement, the dwelling uses the minute site to its full potential.
Sitting in a prominent location on the junction with Colindale Avenue which is undergoing major redevelopment, it promises minor development in extremis by transforming a dilapidated garage into a modern micro-dwelling in line with Barnet’s forward-looking mindset and the limited aspirations and needs of the applicant who intends to live here.
Both alike and unalike
Booth Road in elevation has a regularity, which our design respects in terms of set-back, orientation, shape and scale. But it’s also a varied streetscape of houses and flats of different ages, materials, set-backs and orientations / alignments with the street.
For example, the applied black-painted wood effect, sometimes called Tudorbethan, is common to the street but inconsistently used and has many interpretations along Booth Road. So, whilst the adjacent block-of-four, Nos 1 -7 has applied black-painted wood to its gable, its neighbour, the next block-of four, Nos 9-15 does not and nor does the similar block opposite.
From No 17, the black-painted wood occurs further up the street on the same side but with a different pattern and a different arrangement of gable ends. But the next block that is No 15 is a block of flats and does not even have a gable end and, like No 16 opposite the site, which does have a gable end onto the street, is made of a single brick with minimal variance to its detailing.
So, whilst there is a degree of likeness or uniformity in the street in terms of scale and position in relation to the pavement, overall the architectural detail is inconsistent and variable giving opportunity for our house to be just that, both like and unlike its direct neighbours.
Service: Architects
Location: Colindale, Barnet, London NW9
Client: Denis Buckley
Cost: Undisclosed
Areas: GIFA 38m2
Dates: Planning Permission 2022
With: Planit Consulting
To Live In To Learn In To Work In To Play In