Good Mews Story

Originally Victorian stables with staff accommodation above, the mid-terrace mews building had been partially converted into a house in the 1980s. It included an un-insulated attic, an open garage-cum-store room on the ground floor and an extensive number of bathrooms throughout. The brief asked for an efficient, future-proofed, pair of self-contained homes with a break-through spot to inter-connect in the future. Above the 1-bed ground floor flat, the first occupants of the upside-down 4-bed maisonette are refugees fleeing conflict.

The building envelope is fully insulated and sealed with taped internal OSB and fitted with a whole-house MVHR system. The old brickwork is independently ventilated through the pointing weepholes. The open-plan boat-like cooking/living space on the top floor is roofed with reclaimed slates. On the roof, solar hot water panels are recessed into the southern pitch while a pair of heavily insulated, yet quietly modern dormers sit on the North-facing pitch. Though identical from the street, one dormer hides a full-height French door by the sitting area while the other, a smaller window with a herb garden by the kitchen. The openings are carefully calibrated to maximise light from the North and South.

Landfill and embodied carbon are reduced through salvaging, restoring and re-using many building elements found on site, as well as applying recycled materials and limiting the use of cement:

• timber boarding discovered within plasterboarded walls is installed as wall cladding around the old winder staircase leading to the loft;
• the less good floorboards are turned 90º as cladding for the low loft walls;
• the roof ties are exposed to sit alongside the reclaimed timberwork;
• the windows are rehung and re-fitted with extra-slim double glazing and new seals;
• the old stable doors are restored with newly-made authentic hinges cast from the original castings; behind these doors, new triple glazed windows and doors complete the efficient thermal envelope letting maximum daylight into the space within;
• instead of UFH cast into a screed, thin pre-grooved rigid panels float directly on the thick floor insulation;
• a very simple palette of materials includes terrazzo tiling with 40% recycled porcelain and recycled yoghurt pot boards as kitchen units and worktops;

• the Heat Pump-ready design. The increased thermal performance will allow for transition from gas when public acceptance allows for use of heat pumps in conservation areas.