Triangle House / Artefact Studio

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Text description provided by the architects.Triangle House is a detached home at the end of a cul-de-sac overlooking Roseberry Park in Epsom, developed by Ideal Homes in the 1950s. Artefact created a new wing to the house that chases the afternoon sun at the back of the garden. Crafted from triangular blue blocks and terracotta tiles, with a warm yellow ceiling, the extension references the tones of the existing house and the client’s heritage, inspired by the book Caribbean Style. The vibrant architecture is framed by an exotic planting scheme by Phenomena, as banana palms and lush planting unfurl along the sweeping blue terrace that unites the existing house and the extension.Beyond the low canopy, the entrance lobby is a dramatic double-height space where old and new collide under an open mezzanine and family bathroom. Passing through the hall, an enfilade of living spaces unfolds along the garden, culminating in a picture window that frames a view over the park. Designed without internal doors, the kitchen flows through a pair of openings into the top-lit dining room which leads to an intimate snug at the end of the enfilade. A careful balance of openness and enclosure ensures the living spaces feel like a series of distinct rooms with glimpses of life in the neighbouring spaces.The client’s brief was to create expanded living spaces, a new family bathroom, a future-proofed adaptable bedroom, an office-cum-music room, and a snug and reconfigured garden. Artefact translated these requirements into a series of interconnected spaces that flow from the street through to the garden. The new entrance is marked by a canopy, supported by a triangular column that references the detail of a midcentury building in the surrounding neighbourhood.With an ambitious brief on a tight budget, Artefact skimmed the fat of the building, developing a lean material strategy that gives the building its character, while reducing the cost and carbon of the construction. Single leaf walls are constructed from hollow fair-faced blocks, exposed internally, with insulation and render to the outside. Exposed timber beams and OSB sheathing board are expressed and painted in a bold yellow. In the tradition of public-facing buildings with a more ornate civic façade, the garden elevation is more expressive than the utilitarian rendered walls to the side and rear. Off-the-shelf blue pigmented blocks were skilfully cut on-site by the contractor to create deep triangular columns, with inset terracotta tiles that echo the hung arrowhead tiles of the original 1950s house. This triangular motif recurs across the project, from the shape of the plot and the canopy column to the patterning of the original mid-century wallpaper.