A small triangular website guided the geometric type of Butterfly Home, an accessible house that London studio Oliver Leech Architects has added to the nook of a backyard in Surrey.
Nestled inside a compact plot on the location of an current house, the constructing is designed as future-proof lodging for the consumer’s aged mom and a live-in carer.
Oliver Leech Architects accomplished the self-contained house with a spread of accessible, open areas that the household hopes will facilitate unbiased residing sooner or later.
“We had been requested to create an annexe to the home that the consumer’s mom might use independently,” studio director Oliver Leech informed Dezeen.
“Nonetheless, we wished to verify it was visually and virtually disconnected from the principle home in order that it felt actually like a brand new house.”
Wrapping round smaller personal gardens, the angular type of Butterfly Home is dictated by the form of its website – a nook plot on the southern tip of the backyard.
Three volumes topped with pitched roofs intersect to kind the two-bedroom home. On the outside, blackened timber cladding helps it mix into the shadows of the close by timber.
The design emerged via response to varied website constraints,” Leech defined.
“The splayed plan directs views away from the principle home, and avoids onlooking, as an alternative going through extra personal backyard areas and enormous mature timber to defend the facade,” Leech added.
“The roof we wished to maintain low on the sides – a approach of making certain the home was hid and discreet however we additionally wished to create quantity and top inside.”
Butterfly Home’s entrance door opens onto a nook driveway and leads into an entrance corridor that connects to a gently sloping hall bordered by a wall of oak cabinets.
An open-plan kitchen, residing, and eating house is contained inside the taller central quantity of Butterfly Home, which is flanked by the 2 different volumes containing bedrooms – considered one of which is a collection for the live-in carer.
The place the sloping roofs meet over the central quantity, a shallow V-shaped ceiling hangs over the open residing house.
“By having the bedrooms in every low-lying wing and the residing areas within the centre we had been in a position to maximise top and create a dramatic distinction between areas of compression and growth,” mentioned Leech.
Low drawers and counter tops throughout the kitchen and residing areas, in addition to moveable furnishings, all contribute to the flexibleness and accessibility of the house.
“An vital a part of supported unbiased residing is having the ability to keep a stage of autonomy,” mentioned the studio. “The kitchen design omits using excessive models, opting as an alternative for low drawers and nothing above seated arm’s attain,” it continued.
“By not falling into the tropes of accessible design and aged lodging, it proposes a brand new mannequin for assisted residing that empowers slightly than restricts its future person, making certain continuity of use for generations of households to return.”
All through Butterfly Home, the studio has used impartial tones, textured plastered partitions and oak furnishings to create heat that contrasts the constructing’s darkish exterior.
The rooms are topped with uncovered larch beams, showcasing the timber construction of the roof. Beneath, a strip of clerestory glazing wraps across the outer partitions.
“In distinction to the darkish exterior, the inside finishes carry a muted, calm temper to the house, as a backdrop to the nice and cozy wealthy tones of the larch and oak joinery,” mentioned Leech.
Different accessible properties not too long ago featured on Dezeen embrace an Australian coastal home informed by Japanese design and a set of holiday homes added to derelict agricultural buildings in Dorset.
The images is by Ståle Eriksen.
