Raglan Lane Mews

This mews house, originally part of the rear garden of a Wellington Road property had to respond to a number of restrictive site conditions. The neighbouring property to the north had a first-floor terrace built on the site boundary directly overlooking our site with established rights to light and privacy. Also, the site sits between two building lines: the original historic building line, direct onto the lane and the more recent mews houses which are stepped back creating a front courtyard space. Despite these restrictions, the client required a house which would provide maximum privacy as well as light-filled spacious living spaces

The solution was to create a form that steps in plan, at the fracture between the building lines and in section, to accommodate the restrictions imposed by the neighbouring property’s terrace.

The house is entered from Raglan Lane through a stainless-steel gate set in a limestone-clad wall. A front courtyard is the first in a series of external spaces which provide daylight deep into the living spaces. An ambiguity between interior space is created by finishing the entire ground floor level with limestone slabs, both interior and exterior spaces, separated by floor to ceiling frameless glass walls, to create a sense of a single volume. This ambiguity is further emphasised by similarly detailed interior and exterior fireplaces and the use of chunky timber door frames which read like freestanding furniture elements.

A roof-lit stairs leads to the first floor accommodation. On this upper level, two bedrooms look west over a sedum green roof and the third bedroom at the front of the house features a corner window giving oblique views along the laneway.

The Raglan Lane elevation is formed from two interlocking L-shaped walls, one clad in rough-faced random granite, the other in smooth honed limestone. These two materials reflect the fracture of the building line and articulate the historic and more contemporary building traditions on the lane.