Hive House features in Gestaltan's Brick by Brick

Hive House finds itself in excellent company within this beautiful new book from Gestaltan.

'The venerable brick is one of the oldest and most sustainable building materials in the world. It is simple yet versatile, modest yet resilient, global in usage yet local in appearance.

Recently, young architects have been rediscovering the circular use of brick and embraced its warm, aesthetic appeal to design some of the most exciting buildings of the day.

Brick by Brick showcases the best examples of modern brick applications, with a focus on residential buildings and interiors. These forward-looking projects from around the globe push the boundaries of brick architecture and design. Brick by Brick reveals how traditional forms are revitalized and made contemporary, and how this LEGO block of human civilization can help build our future."

Hive House is a rear addition to an Edwardian terrace house in South London driven by the principles of simplicity and honesty - influenced by a modest budget but also a shared vision to create something unpretentious but materially and spatially rich.

The rear extension is stepped in plan at the rear to respond to existing extensions on either side and reduce impact on neighbours. It creates a new family space by combining the existing rear living room and kitchen with the new additional space to provide kitchen, dining and living areas, each subtly defined within the larger space.

A timber structure of exposed structural plywood was used for the extension to reduce steelwork costs and provide something that could act as both structure and exposed internal storage. This lightweight timber grid was then draped in a skin of red brick to provide external cladding and robustness where required. The bricks are constructed using a stack bond with a light, recessed mortar accentuating the geometry of the materials and referencing the structural timber grid internally.

The objective for the whole project was to allow & encourage each element of the house to be what it wanted to be - thus doors and windows are a simple dark grey aluminium frame, the fascias above are patinated lead over external plywood and the floor and worktops are a cast concrete. Kitchen fronts and storage are formed in structural ply to match the exposed new structure. The result is a light-filled family living space that is both of-its-time but comfortable sitting alongside the main house.