Lantern Studio

Status:Complete
Client: Private
Location: Brockley, London
Structural Engineers: Structure Workshop
Lead Contractors: Surman Weston Construction Ltd
Photography: Wai Ming Ng
Team: Percy Weston, Tom Surman

The project brief was to create a multifunctional space that could be used for work and play but above all a be place that would encourage more engagement with an exceptionally mature, wooded South London garden.

The primary garden facing elevation is the critical design element for the scheme. Here we played with transparency and structure to create a building with a subtly shifting appearance throughout the day and night. The structure is expressed along the front elevation, partially screened with a translucent and sometimes glowing secondary facade, which adds both privacy and lures users down the garden.

Internally, the space is wrapped with spruce plywood maintaining a warm inviting environment even at the depths of the dampest and coldest times of year. The double pitched soffit is punctured by a roof-light framing views up to the mature trees above, while the large Douglas Fir sliding-door and windows look back out to the woodland garden.