London-based architectural practice, SHH, has completed the West London House project. Completed in 2013, the new-build, detached, seven-bed, five-storey house in west London, England has retained its front façade and features one of the largest swimming pools of any property in the area.
An original Victorian property on the site had been split into four flats in the post-war period, which the current owner had purchased piecemeal over time, before coming to SHH with a vision of converting the entire property into a single, luxury family home, based on the principle of lateral living, with high ceilings and extensive living spaces, as well as a very generous pool and leisure complex below ground, to include a spa, sauna, steam room, gym, bar area, changing rooms, toilets, walk-in wine cellar, playroom and cinema room.
Guy Matheson, project leader and SHH associate director, said: The new house has a similar above-ground footprint to the one we replaced. A former 1950s flat-roof extension to the left of the property has been replaced in the same style as the retained façade, with the new roof covering both sections. The brickwork of the retained front façade has also been tuck-pointed, which is something of a lost art-form and gives the building a very crisp aesthetic.”
The extensive garden is a focal point of the new house and much of the space planning was based on maximising and integrating views out onto the garden, with all principal living quarters and bedrooms rear-facing. The designation of a formal front-of-house area for receiving guests and relaxed contemporary living to the rear and the lower storeys for everyday use for the family is expressed by the use of traditional cornicing and skirtings in the front-of-house area and highly contemporary finishes for the rest of the house.
The luxury London property is now made up of five storeys: the lower-ground level (housing the pool and leisure areas); the family-orientated garden level (which opens directly out to the garden space and barbeque terrace at the rear via bi-folding 2.4m x 4.5m glass doors leading out from the main family living space); the upper garden level, which includes the formal reception room and roof terrace and a first and second floors, where most of the bedrooms are located.
As well as being architects on the scheme, SHH also planned all the interior design and designed all the joinery, lighting design, ceiling, wall and floor finishes, whilst all loose furniture and artworks were created or sourced by South African designer Craig Kaplan.
Images courtesy of Gareth Gardner and Alastair Lever
