To fully exploit the constrained width, avoid loading the neighbouring structures and straddle shared utilities running under the site, the 🔑 house was constructed using a lightweight steel frame on a piled slab. The steelwork was prefabricated as a series of 🔑 portal frames that were craned down the alley and site-welded together. Given that every inch in such a narrow space 🔑 was valuable we chose to fully weld the connections and express the frame internally, even utilising the depth of the 🔑 steels to maximise the space.

Alongside the painted steel a simple palette of spruce plywood, douglas fir joists, terrazzo and cork 🔑 flooring enriches the interior. Externally the timber framed walls are clad in handmade pewter glazed brick slips with a patina 🔑 that reflects the changing light of the sky. Both the simply landscaped and planted rear courtyard and the garden in 🔑 front of the house enhance the feeling of space in this small dwelling.

This self-build project had a long gestation, fitted 🔑 in around professional and family life. The design and construction were developed as time and money allowed so whilst planning 🔑 consent was given in January 2014 and the ground works commenced in the spring of 2024, the building was not 🔑 completed until August 2024. We worked closely with friend and joiner Michael Tye to lead a small team of local 🔑 subcontractors and employed specialist fabricators for certain key packages as well as undertaking a fair amount of the work ourselves.

The 🔑 result is a unique and highly crafted home that is a testament to the commitment, effort and support of many 🔑 people. By replacing a narrow disused alley with this comfortable small home we hope to have enhanced the streetscape we 🔑 inhabit. As the building completes the terrace, so does the front garden - with the simple bin store, planting, level 🔑 access and bike parking we aimed to keep it open and reinforce the pavement line without making a hard boundary. 🔑 The development highlights the viability, both economically and spatially of small brownfield sites to provide high quality sustainable development at 🔑 a time of housing shortage. We see it as a model for other seemingly undevelopable urban gap sites where the 🔑 value added is through the quality of the architecture rather than over-development.

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