Light to the basement
Besides meeting the normal functional requirements for a dwelling for two people, two cars can be garaged inside this mews house from 1997. The house is on three levels. On the 1st floor are a bathroom and a bedroom. The basement houses a lower car deck, together with two living rooms and a kitchen, and at entrance level there are an upper car deck, the entrance hall and a small patio with large green trees. A number of windows at ground level conclude the paved patio and cast light down into the basement rooms.
Moving architecture
According to the architect Seth Stein, it is the hydraulic double-decker car lift that makes this house unique.
“The flexibility of the living environment, and the ‘surprise’ factor when you realise that the Perspex floor may be raised to reveal a living room below is quite exceptional”, says Seth Stein.
The car-lift’s usual oil-stained metal has undergone a transformation. To integrate the lift in the building, the upper car deck is clad with limestone. The lower car deck consists of a steel frame in which transparent acrylic panels have been inserted. The transparent floor provides yet another source of daylight in the basement.
Light to the basement
Besides meeting the normal functional requirements for a dwelling for two people, two cars can be garaged inside this mews house from 1997. The house is on three levels. On the 1st floor are a bathroom and a bedroom. The basement houses a lower car deck, together with two living rooms and a kitchen, and at entrance level there are an upper car deck, the entrance hall and a small patio with large green trees. A number of windows at ground level conclude the paved patio and cast light down into the basement rooms.
Moving architecture
According to the architect Seth Stein, it is the hydraulic double-decker car lift that makes this house unique.
“The flexibility of the living environment, and the ‘surprise’ factor when you realise that the Perspex floor may be raised to reveal a living room below is quite exceptional”, says Seth Stein.
The car-lift’s usual oil-stained metal has undergone a transformation. To integrate the lift in the building, the upper car deck is clad with limestone. The lower car deck consists of a steel frame in which transparent acrylic panels have been inserted. The transparent floor provides yet another source of daylight in the basement.
In Knightsbridge, London, a client’s passion for vintage cars and an unusually small plot of land – 48 m2 – has resulted in a mews house with a car-lift on two levels.
The staircase
A continuous staircase functions as a unifying architectural feature and connects the three levels of the house. It is also a light shaft, built of reflecting and translucent materials:
“The three levels of the house are linked by a continuous glass and steel staircase.
The landings are also glass in order to transmit as much natural light throughout the house as possible”, says Seth Stein and continues:
“The diffusion of light through translucent floors and walls creates an illusion of greater space”.
The bathroom
On the 1st floor of the house, where the bedroom and bathroom are situated, the architects have again challenged the normal view that daylight enters through windows in walls.
As an example, the roof in the bathroom opens – VELUX roof windows ensure both light and a view. Here, one can lie in the bath and watch drifting clouds and the stars.
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