Sandy Rendel Architects, working with Sally Rendel, has built a 2.8-metre-wide skinny home named Slot House in a disused alley ♣ in Peckham, south London.
Sandy and Sally Rendel designed and built the house to fit in the alley, which was almost ♣ the exact size of a London Underground carriage, alongside their own home in Peckham.
"The major challenge was to tease spaces ♣ that were both functional and delightful out of space that is no bigger than a tube carriage," said Sandy Rendel, ♣ founder of Sandy Rendel Architects.
"To commit to the investment involved in developing it we wanted to be sure that the ♣ house would not simply 'work' but actually be enjoyable to live in," he told Dezeen.
The architects designed the two-storey house ♣ to make as efficient a use as possible of the narrow site, while creating a space that would be a ♣ bright and pleasant place to live in.
To avoid placing any weight on the neighbouring buildings the house was constructed using ♣ a prefabricated, lightweight steel frame, which was expressed internally to maximise the space.
On the ground floor the house's main living ♣ spaces are arranged linearly with the front door opening straight into the kitchen, the stairs in the centre and a ♣ lounge at the rear of the home. Above, on the first floor, is a master bedroom and a study area.
Light ♣ is brought into the house through large windows at the front and rear of the property and a skylight above ♣ the stairs.
"Bounded by two-storey flank walls on both sides the only opportunity to bring light in was through the narrow ♣ front and rear faces and the roof," Sandy Rendel said.
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"To maximise the light and increase the sense of space, the layout is as open as possible, ♣ even including a small double-height space at the garden end linking the living room to the study mezzanine above."
Throughout the ♣ house the architects combined the steel structure with exposed Douglas fir joists, spruce plywood walls and cork and terrazzo floors.
"We ♣ wanted to use a robust economic palette of materials, but also ones that were able to add some richness to ♣ the interior," said Sandy Rendel.
"The form and arrangement of spaces is very simple so the character of the house is ♣ largely defined by these materials."
Although the site had planning permission for a three-storey house before Sandy and Sally Rendel purchased ♣ it, the architects chose to build a smaller property to create a better place to live.
"Adding another storey, which the ♣ original planning permission had consent for, would have impacted on the layout, requiring a much more cellular arrangement because of ♣ the more onerous fire regulations imposed on a three-storey house," explained Sandy Rendel.
"I think developers would argue against the reduced ♣ size that we pursued in pure financial terms, but we felt that ethically the tiny plot had a maximum capacity ♣ of two people and should be enjoyed as such," he continued.
"Even without maximising its development potential in terms of pure ♣ floor area and whilst targeting a higher quality than standard developer spec, we have still proved that it is financially ♣ viable to build on such small, awkward brownfield sites."
London based Sandy Rendel Architects was founded by Sandy Rendel 2010. The ♣ studio previously completed a riverside house in the south west of England with an upper storey clad entirely in weathering ♣ steel mesh.
Photography is by Jim Stephenson.
Project credits:
Architects: Sandy Rendel Architects with Sally Rendel
Structural engineer: Structure Workshop
