Deco House is a serene and sun-drenched home that reimagines the Art Deco style for contemporary living. Nestled within the backstreets of leafy Kew, our clients purchased one of a series of six mirrored Art Deco cottages to become their forever home. They enjoyed its location, brickwork and decorative detailing but were frustrated by its cramped and dark rooms. They asked us to transform the house into a warm family home with welcoming spaces, lots of light and enough bedrooms to accommodate future children.
Though remarkably unprotected by a heritage overlay, our design intervention nevertheless seeks to honour the heritage quality of the original house. It retains the front half of the original and adds a double-storey extension to the rear. This extension riff on the original’s white render and decorative red brick detailing, interpreting these to form a curvy red brick extension with decorative white detailing. The stepped bullnose roofs solve a collection of thorny design challenges in one gesture: they anchor Deco House in the era of its namesake, face key rooms towards the sun and navigate maximum building envelope permissions.
Inside, Deco House comprises a rational sequence of living and sleeping zones that orbit around a shared driveway, side entry and compact garden spaces, gifting each room with a view outside and access to gorgeous natural light. The rooms are generously arranged to provide places to cook, socialise and relax, while clever storage facilitates cheeky display spaces for our clients’ eclectic LEGO collection.
The rich internal material palette is inspired by the natural timelessness of concrete, timber and white marble, reflecting the original timber floors and decorative white plaster. These materials are honestly detailed and finished, each possessing a deep lustre that captures the changing quality of light across the seasons and each day. As the sun moves overhead, each window takes its turn to introduce light indoors, the curved ceiling at time concentrating and at others scattering the light across the lustrous material palette. Back outside, the heaviness of the brickwork is offset by the lightness of perforated metal screens that filter the sunlight during the day and glow like lanterns in the evening.
Sustainability statement
Deco House achieves a high level of environmental sustainability through passive solar design principles and a careful selection of active energy and water saving systems. The extension is oriented to the north and east, with perforated metal screens to the north and translucent canopy to the east preventing the entry of unwanted summer sun. The walls and roofs are filled with high performance insulation, glazing is timber framed and double glazed, and the polished concrete floor provides excellent thermal mass.
Active systems include a low energy heat pump for hot water and a green switch at the front door that kills nonessential circuits whenever the house is empty. Most importantly, Deco House retains the front half of the original Art Deco cottage, carefully restoring the original house fabric rather than let the energy and history embodied in its materials go to waste.
Q & A
Who lives in the house?
Our clients are Frank and Amy, newlyweds eager to create a home for their future family.
What is the history of the house?
The original single-storey cottage dates back to the 1930s, starting life as a modest expression of the Art Deco style. It is characterised by a side entry, period brick detailing, decorative plaster ceilings and beautiful Art Deco light fittings.
House does the project relate to its context?
Nestled within the backstreets of leafy Kew and forming part of an intact series of mirrored cottages, Deco House honours the heritage quality of its context. It retains the front half of the original house, including all its period detailing, and adds a double-storey extension to the rear. This extension picks up on the red brickwork, white render and decorative flair of the original house. The curved roofs and entry wall, white metal screens and subtle bullnose brick sills offer a contemporary reinterpretation of the Art Deco period.
What was the project brief?
Frank and Amy asked us to create a warm family home with welcoming spaces, lots of light and enough bedrooms to accommodate future children. They wanted a forever home where they can enjoy relaxing, cook up a storm and easily entertain family and friends.
How do the spaces relate to one another?
Deco House is neatly organised around three zones: an adult retreat within the original cottage, family living areas out the back, and kids’ bedrooms upstairs. These zones orbit around a shared driveway, side entry and compact garden spaces, gifting each room a view outside and access to generous natural light.
What influenced the material palette?
The exterior material palette of Deco House is strongly influenced by the original cottage. The extension riffs on the original’s white render and decorative red brick detailing, interpreting these to become red brick with decorative white detailing. The heaviness of the brickwork is offset by the lightness of the perforated metal screens over the front porch and first floor windows. Inside, the palette is inspired by the natural timelessness of concrete, timber and white marble, again reflecting the original timber floors and decorative white plaster.
What was your biggest challenge during the project?
The layout for Deco House came to us very easily, but finding the right three-dimensional form was a huge challenge. We sought to simultaneously imbue the home with its Art Deco-inspired character, address passive solar design principles, resolve unusual siting requirements and comply with difficult town planning conditions. The stepped bullnose roof forms allowed us to do solve all of these challenges in one gesture: they anchor Deco House in the era of its namesake, face key rooms towards the sun and navigate maximum building envelope permissions.
What are you most proud of about the project?
We’re super proud of how serene and beautiful Deco House is to inhabit, how it captures the changing quality of light across the seasons and each day, and how the natural material palette imbues each room with a sense of warmth and welcome.
Client testimonial
During the period of engagement from initial designs through construction management, the team at Mihaly Slocombe were consummate professionals. They provided timely advice without making us feel like they had taken ownership. They made the largest purchase of our life a smooth journey and carried a lot of the stress involved to ensure the end product was what we envisioned.
