A house for its garden – a Japanese-influenced place for dwelling in-between with minimal vocabulary and expansive apertures reaching out to draw in the garden and return its echo. RIBA London Award. The practice was engaged to undertake an extensive remodelling of an existing house set in the prestigious Totteridge Village Conservation Area, alongside landscaping by Christopher Bradley-Hole. We provided full architectural design services from inception to completion, including furniture and accessory design and selection. The practice also provided project management services overseeing the contract works and procurement. Robin Walker Architects were awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects London Award for this project. The work was the subject of a monograph by the celebrated Japanese photographer Yukio Futagawa and published in Global Architecture Houses. RIBA Jury statement: “The project is an extensive conversion of a pre-existing large detached house on the fringes of The Darlands Nature Reserve and although all the piecemeal additions have been stripped away, you can still make out the original 1950s house beneath the exquisite new work: an overflowing slate roof and a façade clad in western red cedar. The house and the garden were conceived as an ensemble piece. The overall collage has elements of Scandinavian and Japanese influence with more than a touch of Frank Lloyd Wright. The internal volumes have been restructured to create double-height expansive spaces. Here the Japanese influence is still more evident, the materials pared down. Not a stone unturned, nor a room without narrative, and not a single off-the-shelf item.”