Forest House

AOC Architecture

Waltham Forest, 2022

Unique Character Prize

Shortlisted

Forest House is a remodelled and extended semi-detached Victorian house on a tree-lined street in Highams Park. After four years in the house the family of five wanted to retain the comfortable intimacy of the well-proportioned rooms but introduce the spatial generosity and experiential joy that they experience in the nearby Epping Forest.

"Unique from start to finish. A home that has truly been designed for the family that will live there. Delightful to see a family really put their stamp on their home. Brave and beautiful in equal measures." - Kunle Barker, Property Expert and Broadcaster, 2022 Judge

A single storey garage was removed and a set of new connected spaces wrapped around the side and rear of the house. A triple height kitchen sits at the heart of the home, pushing out into a garden room, overlooked by a mezzanine studio, with an attic room perched above.

The stacked floors of the wraparound extension support family life by providing different spatial characters for different uses within one shared space. Large windows and discrete rooflights catch light and views from all sides, creating an expansive interior between the parallel party walls. The front of the house responds to the decorum of the red brick street with an inverted palette of white bricks and red pre-cast concrete lintels.

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“The Victorian semi is a very common house type in London, with well-proportioned rooms and substantial construction worth celebrating. By wrapping it with contrasting spaces that capture the experiential delights of the Forest, a new combined character is made that is both very familiar and utterly unique.”

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Forest House

AOC Architecture

Unique Character Prize

Shortlisted

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