Mesh House / Alison Brooks Architects

This project is a rare example of a newly built house in Central London, in the Hampstead Conservation Area. Alison Brooks Architects was commissioned by a private client to design a new model of family home, tailored to the fluid, informal lifestyles of its five family members. The project site is in Belsize Park, Hampstead, one of London’s most characterful neighbourhoods, known for its lush greenery and wide spectrum of domestic architecture. The site is both sloping and wedge-shaped, with a wide frontage that ‘turns the corner ' of Belsize Lane. A crucial technical constraint was to ensure 100% daylight was maintained in the windows of neighbouring buildings, requiring careful 3D modelling of the overall building form. This unusual site called for a careful negotiation of the building form both as a piece of the streetscape and as an instrument to create an intimate domestic landscape.