Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House.
This new Peckham house is an excellent demonstration of how skill, patience, and hard work can come together to get an urban infill off the ground. Mastering the art of its project type is a rite of passage for architects in crowded, high-priced cities like London.
However, the end result wears this lengthy process with pride, with details, materials and spatial arrangement all testament to meticulous quality control and preparation.‘It is trickier finishing your own house compared to other people’s,’ Weston admits from the crisply delineated new kitchen, made from varnished and polished green moisture resistant MDF. The ground floor comprises of just two rooms, plus a generous hall and cloakroom.
Here there are three modest bedrooms and a family bathroom, with lime plaster walls throughout. A raised, curved ceiling with high-level window adds a touch of the unexpected. In the main bedroom, the plywood wardrobes are stained with indigo to bring out the grain.Up another stair, past an old construction hoist repurposed as a dumb waiter, and you reach the roof terrace, reached through a sliding, cork-covered hatch set inside an off-the-shelf aluminium greenhouse.
The house is now lived in by Weston and his young family, allowing everyone a pause before they consider their next move. However Surman Weston decides to apply its self-build skills in the future, the architects would be hard-pressed to give up the creative freedom and richness of detail and materials on display down in Peckham.