'Half Moon lane is a leafy suburban street within
the Dulwich Estate - not a natural habitat for new architecture.
However, Cullum & Nightingale's studio, completed in 1999, and
adjacent house, constructed from 2003 to 2004 for the artist Kate
Whiteford and her husband, make a well-mannered but highly individual
contribution to the local scene. On a small, awkwardly shaped site
at the intersection of two roads, the architects have created a fusion
of architecture and landscape, of internal and external space, which
is essentially modern yet has clear roots in the Arts and Crafts
tradition. There is more than a hint of Mackintosh in the house -
Kate Whiteford is Scottish - and memories, too, of Africa - Whiteford
worked with Cullum & Nightingale on a major artwork for the British
High Commission building in Nairobi.
'The studio is a low-cost workspace - of brick with a copper-clad roof externally,
one big volume internally - with a mezzanine covering a small kitchen
and shower room. Two large north-facing dormer windows provide the necessary
even light for painting. Studio and house enclose a small courtyard.
The
house forms a strong composition, with dormers on its eastern elevation
connecting it visually to the studio, and a bold chimney stack with internal
and external
fireplaces. Constructed of brick, partly rendered, it is roofed in
copper, with copper downpipes. Inside, the emphasis is on space and light.
The full-height
living space, like medieval hall, is its social heart, with subsidiary
spaces opening off it, and bedrooms and bathrooms on the first floor accessed
via
an open gallery. A 'secret' stair, buried in the wall, connects the
living room with the main bedroom above.
'With plenty of conviction but an absence of needless whimsy, Cullum & Nightingale
have reinterpreted the suburban tradition in a thoroughly modern manner
to create a house that must be as inspirational to live in as it is
engaging to look at.'
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