Hidden House with its own underground dancefloor goes on sale for £4m
When given the prospect to design our family residence, most of us would find yourself erring on the sensible facet – bedrooms for all, plus a spare for visitors or a house workplace; modern loos, with a swathe of poured concrete if we’re feeling actually daring.
For architect Ian Hogarth and his spouse, Claire Farrow, nonetheless, there was nothing fairly so predictable.
Prime of their listing got here a subterranean disco with illuminated dance ground, a leisure suite with sauna, meditation area and sizzling tub tub, from which to blast roots reggae, a sunken cinema and inside fishpond.
‘Once we have been seeking to construct a household residence again in 2010, it needed to not solely swimsuit Ian and I completely, but additionally our two teenage youngsters and all their associates,’ Claire says of the three,120sq ft Kensington home, on Russell Backyard Mews, a standard cobbled lane a stroll from Shepherd’s Bush and Holland Park.
‘It was very important it wasn’t a “prissy” home, however one the place individuals might come and go as they happy,’ she says.
Claire is fast to level out that the basement disco area was really constructed for her – ‘I really like to bounce, and now we have had some legendary events right here’ – with a DJ sales space that doubles as a utility room.
Regardless of her insistence that it needed to be ‘an unprecious, knockabout home’, the design cred is impeccable.
Ian, who now works as a personal advisor, has a popularity for edgy, modern design twists solid when he was director of the famend west London-based Hogarth Architects between 2003 and 2019.
Suppose houses that includes overlapping bronze and Portland stone facades, flights of creativeness taking in stilts and towers, and poky London flats was ethereal, light-filled houses.
Residing in a two-bedroom flat in Earl’s Courtroom with their youngsters, Gil and Tilly (who are actually of their twenties), Claire had been fruitlessly attempting to find a plot of land on which to construct.
‘Browsing the web late one evening, in 2009, I merely typed in “land on the market in Kensington”, and, amazingly, a 160 sq. metre plot got here up. I knew we needed to pursue it.’
Behind a row of mews homes, the overgrown website (with a price ticket of round £360,000) had planning permission in place for an 860sq ft home.
‘I made a decision to get the very best architect I might discover, which was Ian, in fact,’ says Claire, who works within the British rap scene.
‘And he just about quadrupled the area.’ When you find yourself constructing in a location like Kensington, Ian says, you might be all the time seeking to what you will get away with.
‘We did should make just a few alterations to our unique designs, and downplay a few of the extra “fashionable” components above floor,’ he says.
‘We additionally managed to purchase a 50 sq. metre sliver of backyard from a neighbour, to increase the plot.’
The undertaking – on which Claire and Ian spent an extra £1million – made for gripping viewing on Channel 4’s self-build residence present Grand Designs, in 2011, as constructing work was began earlier than planning permission was gained.
His design, Ian explains, is basically a light-weight and ethereal warehouse flat on the backside with a mews home on the highest, filled with eco options comparable to photo voltaic panels and MVHR air flow.
And regardless of 50% of the four-bedder being underground – incomes it the moniker ‘The Hidden Home’ – there’s no compromise on pure gentle because of Ian’s ingenious use of glazed areas, mirrors, roof lights, reflective paint, and even a periscope within the basement.
In reality, this sense of practicality melded with enjoyable pervades all the home, kicking off on the entrance.
Set right into a yellow brick façade, coated by a climbing rose, the blue-black mirrored entrance door is bullet-proof, and with none seen hinges, locks or levers.
‘The door is fingerprint entry, so there’s no want for keys in any respect,’ Claire says. ‘Nice for youngsters who don’t have to recollect them!’
Three units of stairs within the hallway make exploration an journey – one set leads straight forward to the open-plan kitchen/diner, and the others to the three bedrooms on the primary and second flooring, and all the way down to the basement, with its disco area, leisure space and film room with ethanol hearth.
Though Claire says she left many of the design selections to Ian, she did insist on the sliding oak worktop that rolls away to disclose the Foster hob.
‘It’s a trick I noticed in New York and liked, as I don’t like kitchens that really appear to be kitchens: I like all the things hidden neatly away.’
The open-plan room, which additionally incorporates a eating room, has Douglas fir flooring by Dinesen and a full-height sliding window resulting in the personal backyard. Right here, you’ll discover a sunken seating space beneath a pergola, hearth pit and two awnings guaranteeing it’s an all-weather area.
As you’d think about, it has been an actual celebration home – the truth is, Claire’s soirees have been so widespread they outgrew the basement, and she or he arrange her own dance night with just a few associates.
It has additionally been used for London structure excursions and as a shoot location, and earlier than the pandemic was a part of London’s Open Home pageant, welcoming round 6,000 visitors.
Claire and Ian say the house actually got here into its personal throughout lockdown, nonetheless, with all its flowing, but distinct inside and outside areas. It was additionally throughout this time, Claire says, that she realised it was time to promote up.
‘I had an epiphany and realised I didn’t want all of the issues I believed I did, that life may be a lot less complicated. I simply want my youngsters and a household residence.’
The Hidden Home is now on the market with The Modern House, for £4m, and Ian is busy finalising his designs to overtake their subsequent residence, a three-bedroom ex-council flat in Notting Hill that was constructed within the Nineteen Eighties.
Wanting again on their work at The Hidden Home, Claire says their biggest triumph is evident. ‘We really managed to create a home for youngsters that have been completely happy to deliver their associates again, and the place everybody all the time felt welcome. It’s been a blast.’
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