Hampstead House by Coppin Dockray is the sensitive restoration of an overlooked Trevor Dannatt modernist home
, has had years of piecemeal additions peeled back in a refurbishment for a young, growing family. Coppin Dockray, an architecture studio familiar with employing historical sensitivity in its delicate revivals of 20th-century buildings, strikes a meticulous balance of preserving the house’s original character while infusing contemporary boldness and resilience in the new design.
Sitting in a dip on a tricky wedge-shaped plot, the home is a checkerboard of stepped pavilions with roofs of varying heights surrounding a central courtyard. The house’s gardens and patios are brought inside through expansive windows and often double-height ceilings, each room offering a distinct landscape of flourishing British flora. To fit the new family’s needs, a playroom was added to the ground floor whilst additional bedrooms and a study formed the upper floor.
Unusually illuminated with natural daylight for a north-facing site, the materiality of the house is noticeably, deliberately simple. Solid brick walls, either left exposed or white-washed on the interior are connected by sweet chestnut flooring, bespoke joinery, and staircases. The kitchen, the heart of the home, glows warm with wood-panelled fittings under a large rooflight segmented with baffles.
In addition to the carefully chosen materials that no doubt will improve the home’s life span, improved ventilation and insulation factor into the renovation’s future-proof construction. ‘We worked methodically to improve the energy performance,’ the architects explained, adding that the result of these interventions was a notable 59 per cent improvement in the home's annual carbon emissions.
‘Despite the site’s restrictions, animated, dappled light always tracks through the interior spaces via discreet clerestory windows, a double-height void, or attentively framed window views,' write the architects. Indeed, in spite of the difficulties and restrictions tied to working with such a challenging, rich site, this breath of fresh air to the new family home renders it as charming as it was 60 years ago.
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