Architect：Stanton Williams

Location：Hampstead, London, UK; | ;

Project Year：2019

Category：Private Houses

The design is an intelligent negotiation of context and identity – synthesised into a retreat for domestic rituals Urban repair A sensitive addition to the Hampstead Conservation Area, Fleet House by Stanton Williams reinterprets the historic Hampstead Village boundary wall tradition into a contemporary domestic concept. The design originates from the idea of re-establishing the lost boundaries which once defined the site at the junction between Admiral's Walk and an almost forgotten historic footpath, while realigning the house with the pavement in continuity with the tall garden wall of the adjacent Grade I listed Fenton House.

“We were particularly interested in reinstating the local tradition and developing the house around the idea of an almost endless boundary – one that at the same time shelters and generates the domestic space. Acting as a textured protective shell, the boundary unfolds into a series of habitable spaces, gains thickness, hides and creates entrances, rooms and courtyards as it responds to its context. The boundary wall becomes the house,” says Patrick Richard, Principal Director at Stanton Williams.