Lantern House is an example of traditional architecture reinterpreted for modern living. The property has high ceilings and a generous entertaining space within a compact house, designed for lifetime use for a client with an interesting collection of Victorian furniture and a keen interest in architecture and design. The house has been carefully designed to arrange the living spaces around two sides of a South facing courtyard garden. The sun path has informed the position of the rooms, in order to maximise natural daylight into the rooms where it is required, at the times required. For example the sun penetrates into the ground floor bedroom in the morning, into the kitchen during most of the day and into the drawing room between mid-morning through to the evening. The house has been designed for a ‘lifetime home’ style of living and with a flexibility of the usage of the space. The arrangement of the rooms (with the master bedroom on the ground floor) allows single storey living within a larger whole, with the first floor being visiting family and guest accommodation. That said a family could occupy the house in a more conventional way, living across both storeys. Additionally the design facilitates using only a smaller part of the house for day to day living, with the ‘family’ living areas grouped on the ground floor. For more formal living, the drawing room can be brought into use and for ‘full’ entertaining the whole house can be occupied as a whole. There are a number of unexpected ‘moments’ within the house, these range from the humble; the downstairs cloakroom has a door concealed into the panelling of the hallway, to the more overt; the first floor landing has been designed as a library with a vaulted ceiling and a gallery, and the whole space is top lit by a lantern to allow the owner to display works of art without the issues of bleaching by the sun. Lantern House was the winner of The Daily Telegraph Homebuilding and Renovating Best Traditional Style Home 2014 and was shortlisted for Best Housing Development - 1 to 5 Units at The Brick Awards in 2012.