UK studio Fletcher Crane Architects has completed Kingston Villa in Richmond, London, offering a contemporary “evolution” of the area’s typical suburban architecture in pale brick and metal.
Tasked with turning a dilapidated bungalow on the edge of Richmond Park into a new family home, the Surrey-based studio drew on its neighbouring buildings to create a simple, gabled form.
“This new family villa bordering Richmond Park seeks to evolve the historic villa typology and inject character and quality into a typical suburban streetscape architecture,” explained Fletcher Crane Architects.
“The resultant detached home has been inspired by the varying historic features within the quality built environment; friezes, bays, entrance porticos and construction methodology – represented into an architecture of its day,” it continued.
Facing the street, Kingston Villa is fronted by a metal canopy that shelters its entrance. This sits beneath a gable end that has been finished in pale textured brickwork.
The entrance route leads past two smaller lounge and study spaces into a living, dining and kitchen space, centred around a double-height seating area and fireplace overlooked by a metal and timber stair.
In these living and circulation areas, the internal finishes mirror those of the outside, with exposed brickwork, tiled floors and dark wooden carpentry bringing a “heavy, yet quiet” quality to the spaces.
At the rear of the home, full-height windows look out towards the park, finished with alternating deep-set and projecting metal reveals that subtly animate the facade.
On the ground floor, sliding glass doors provide access to a sunken paved patio that steps up to the garden beyond.
“Bold white brickwork is contrasted by bronzed window frames, metalwork panels and arboreal planting,” explained the studio.
“The architecture is heavy, yet quiet with a focus on emphasising the fabulous location and aspect with panoramic views of the park,” it added.
The home’s bedrooms are organised across its first and second floors, overlooking the front of the home through a metal-framed corner window and illuminated by a rooftop skylight.
In these areas, the heavily textured finish of the living space was swapped for simple white walls and wood floors, contrasted by bedrooms finished with red and green tiles.
Fletcher Crane Architects was established in 2010 in Kingston upon Thames by Toby Fletcher and Ian Crane.
The studio often looks to create contemporary interpretations of traditional British architecture, previously drawing on a nearby church and historic home for a dwelling overlooking the River Thames in Buckinghamshire.
The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.
