Winner of Applecore Designs 25th Birthday Awards Small Project Award and named one of London’s best extensions, alma-nac’s Slim House has also featured in BBC Two programme ‘Your Home Made Perfect’.
In series 3, episode 1 of the programme, Architect Laura Jane Clark shows Angela Scanlon around the property, explaining that the ‘wedge’ extension allows the structure to invite plenty of light into the home, as well as offering a great amount of height and space. At only 3 metres wide Slim House was featured to explain how a small building can still offer an excellent liveable space.
Slim House
Alma-nac were approached by their client to investigate the possibilities for extending and enhancing an existing terraced house on the busy high street of St John’s Hill, Clapham, London.
The uniquely narrow proportions, measuring just 2.3m internally throughout, presented certain challenges in terms of organising the spaces. alma-nac managed to construct the Slim House, on budget and within these tight constraints.
The characteristic sloped roof greatly reduces the cost of construction, with staggered rooflights providing views out while ensuring light penetrates the centre of the property.
Slim House was praised for its clever use of space in refurbishing and elongating a narrow house, while ‘drawing light deep into the centre of the plan on a tight budget
A light well was introduced, and a cranked floor plan provides a lofty double height dining space, and generous storage on each floor.
VR
Virtual reality is a great tool for expressing design intent as it allows the client/stakeholder to step into the design and get a real feel for themselves.
In the programme Shelley and Steven are given virtual reality headsets to view the design. As you could see from their reactions, the couple were amazed to see the project come to life.
Your Home-Made Perfect Season 4 is yet to be announced. BBC Two has yet to reveal the decision on renewal/cancelation of the programme. Given the mainly positive statistics of the current 3rd season, critic/viewers’ consensus is that a return would be very well received.
Episodes of the programme demonstrating cutting edge technology and introducing innovative architects can be found on BBC iPlayer.