Join Open City Friends on this tour of the new Lloyd Eist House with its architects from Common Ground Workshop.
The house is located in Camberwell, South London, and involves the refurbishment and new second floor and side extension of a mid-century storage warehouse building to provide a three-storey family home.
The building was initially designed to be a live-work unit for the 'Lloyd Eist foundation', a charitable organization in memory of the original owner's late son Mr Lloyd Eist. It was later adapted to provide a detached family home, demonstrating the extent to which a unique, flexible and sustainable dwelling can be achieved on a very small urban site.
This building is on the shortlist for the AJ Small Projects 2023.
Date: 6th July
Time: 3pm-4pm
Address: Camberwell, South London
Key Project Details
The building was initially designed by Common Ground Workshop to be a live-work unit for the Lloyd Eist Foundation, a charitable organization in memory of the original owner's late son Mr Lloyd Eist.
The client became unable to finish the scheme and Common Ground Workshop then took over the site and set up Common Ground Developments -1; a new architect-led development company to purchase the site and take the project forward. We are deeply motivated to improve London’s housing stock and wanted to use the project as a platform to develop our vision for lasting, flexible and sustainable places for people to live in for the long term. This opportunity offered the perfect chance to spring-board into responsible and well-designed property development and to make this vision a reality.
The house's material palette incorporates a range of sustainable and tactile materials, including a wide range of reclaimed timber framing (used for structure and for surface linings throughout), concrete and brick surfaces, which have been reused and recycled in the design. Locally manufactured sapele timber bespoke windows and door frames have been used throughout as well as Valchromat linings, and quartz worktops.
The space boasts greatly improved energy efficiency criteria and has incorporated an air-source heat pump to facilitate space heating and hot water, as well as internally insulated existing walls throughout. The new construction is in timber framing and, despite being questioned at the planning stage by the local authority (who suggested demolition and reconstruction) we chose to utilise as much of the existing built fabric as possible to provide a new family home over 3 levels. The size of the site was also questioned by the local authority, and we were able to overcome their concerns by demonstrating a flexible, spatially efficient, flexible design that could be adapted over time.
You can find out more about the house here.
[the photographs are credited to Nick Dearden (Building Narratives)]
Please note this event is for Open City Friends only. If you like to attend this tour and more in our 2023 programme, become a Friend of Open City today.
