Totteridge House is a bold new five-bedroom modernist home in a North London Conservation Area. Sitting adjacent to traditionally designed neighbours, in a sparse area on the edge of London and the Green Belt, this unequivocally contemporary home replaces a dated Bungalow on the site - where the clients have lived for many years. First appointed in 2014, the brief asked for a substantial new contemporary house that would provide a stark contrast to the ‘usual homes’ that are built in the area. Designed with a dramatic entertaining space at its centre, the house needed to take advantage of long North facing views at the rear, whilst benefiting from the South sun and quality of light at the front of property – facing a busy road. Navigating the restrictions of the Totteridge Conservation Area and the Greater London Green Belt, the house was originally designed with a lower ground floor as a three-storey home ‘sunken’ into the natural topography of the site – appearing like a single storey building from the street. Sloping down to the front door, the clients wanted level thresholds between the house and rear garden. After achieving planning permission in 2015, the project went on hold until 2017, at which point the brief had progressed. It was agreed that a two-storey house was more suitable for the steep site and that many of the lower ground floor spaces were superfluous. Having spent many years on the project already, we also felt that the design of the house could be superior with this more limited scope (having seen similar projects completed in the interim). A similar, albeit more refined design was granted planning permission in 2017 and began building the next year. A healthy budget was made to work for a house of such high specification. The clients wanted a home to have contemporary character and the fabric of the building (cladding, flooring & windows) was considered for its quality and longevity. A restrained palette of ‘raw’ materials was used, including waterstruck grey bricks and thick-cut sections of dark-stained cedar to clad the highly insulated lightweight walls between a structural steel frame. Rather than mimicking a traditional masonry load bearing construction – the steel frame is playfully expressed using heavy brickwork at first floor level, and lightweight timber and glass below. This method of construction allowed for the fabric to be highly insulated, yet unique in its ability to differentiate the materials on the upper and lower stories. Aluminium thin-framed Swiss glazing was used for its engineered build-quality and minimalist detailing. Concrete floors and dark stained timber internally provided a restrained and minimalist aesthetic. Totteridge House aims to be an exciting and unique addition to this suburban London Conservation Area.