New build 800 sqm house on an enclosed backland site in Notting Hill (due for completion mid 2005). The orientation of the site runs almost east-west, and looks towards the more open sides of the site to the south. However, the site is heavily overlooked and overshadowed on the south and west elevations and it is critical to maintain privacy, whilst optimising daylight and sunlight penetration into the house. Our starting point was to represent the empty volume of the site as a three dimensional grid of voxel data points (3D pixels) each consisting of a various range of attributes. Working with Ove Arup & Partners, a detailed environmental analysis for each individual voxel was carried out. This analysis produced a database of solar and daylight conditions throughout the year, taking into account weather patterns specific to London. Such environmental data is large and complex and therefore the computer becomes an ideal tool for hypothesizing and extrapolating possible proposals. Database mining software tools for the extraction of generalised conditions and conclusions from the environmental data were developed by ourselves. Subsequently, the clients preferences and lifestyle were superimposed onto environmental data. This led to the emergence of a project that was tuned to both the three dimensional environmental conditions and the brief. The section became inverted, placing the bedrooms on the ground floor and the living spaces on the first floor. The inward looking nature of the site in conjunction with the inverted section led to the development of a completely glazed 'sky facade' roof to the house. This 'sky facade', the only visible facade, was seen as an environmental moderator , filtering sunlight and daylight through layers of transparancy and opacity. Solar optimised terraces and gardens created internal courtyard volumes into which the surrounding spaces face.