Ar. Katerina Dionysopoulou & Ar. Billy Mavropoulos, Co-Founder of Bureau de Change Architects have recently completed a terraced house in South London in Victorian Style. It characteristically showcases the unconventional arrangement of interlocking geometric glass volume that reveals a sequence of compelling interior spaces.
The complex design of interconnected forms drawn from the geometry of the site and its adjacencies evokes an almost metabolist sense of crystalline growth with volumes extruded in different directions, some sitting beneath the original house and others expanding outwards.
The detailing of the structure features a technically complex steel-frame construction reminiscent of the museum case, combining fragility with solidity in a manner that represents an antidote to the frameless glass extensions of the past decade.
The cubist glass volumes are articulated through their bold steel-frame construction, expressing each edge in a manner that creates shifting patterns of light and space.
The ground floor is echoed with the rhythm and logic of rectilinear offsetting with undulating levels carefully designed to curate views and delineate spaces. The design team designed the space in a way that slowly opens the space for surprise, intimacy and drama.
The passage emphasis the lighting and transitioning from the darker enclosure of the kitchen towards the brighter open spaces that lead to the garden. Both the interior space and the landscaping are designed with shifting levels that create both useful and playful ledges, steps, and borders
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The terrazzo floor surface has different shades that identify distinct areas for dining and living with darker tones, leading to lighter ones where the stone meets the garden to form a language of planters and vertical surfaces. The same material and principle are practiced throughout the house of two floors, including the creation of a new master and a guesthouse on the second floor.
A bespoke terrazzo handrail forms the spine of this material journey, linking spaces throughout the house which unfold in a sequence of visually stimulating rooms where texture, graphics, color, and finish have been selected for their theatre and tactility.
Fact File:
Architect Name: Ar. Katerina Dionysopoulou & Ar. Billy Mavropoulos
Firm Name: Bureau de Change Architects
Project Name: Frame House
Size: 160sqm
Location: London/UK
Photographer: Gilbert McCarragher
