Petersham Housing, Richmond-upon-Thames
2000-2003

Terry Farrell and Partners were invited by Berkeley Homes to submit concept proposals for three contemporary homes at Courtyards, River Lane, Petersham as part of a limited competition to develop proposals for the site and were subsequently chosen to implement the scheme.

The site is introspective and surrounded on all sides by established trees, shrubs and high fences. The closed 'other world' nature of the site is further enhanced by the 50-metre lane from River Lane, which significantly bends along its length, closing down views of the site from the surroundings. The planning authority stipulated that the development should be low profile and should not be seen from outside the site – a height of seven metres was agreed. This was a contributing factor to the living room becoming a pavilion in the garden to allow for extra head room.

The design concept creates three individual family homes that form part of a high quality architectural grouping while remaining totally private. Each house is conceived as a linear arrangement of rooms comprising dining room, kitchen, study and bedrooms accessed from a double-height gallery that runs the length of the house.

The northern wall of the gallery is two storeys high and presents the adjoining property with a boundary wall ensuring complete privacy. A glazed living room pavilion plugs into the spine and sits within the enclosed garden. As a result, the living accommodation is pulled as far as possible away from the site boundaries, existing properties and the immediate neighbours on the site, ensuring completely private external space and living accommodation that does not overlook, and is not overlooked by, any of the surrounding properties. The architectural language for the building consists of a range of materials, which with the building form create a contemporary classic modern profile and a scheme of the highest architectural quality. White rendered walls cut through the landscape and the accommodation is enclosed in lightweight elements of timber and grey metal. A full height sliding glass door system is used in all rooms. The three houses use three different stones for the ground level floor and three complimentary timbers for the stairs and upper floor.

The Petersham scheme has awakened an interest in courtyard housing more generally. There is a need to create high quality, modern and sustainable districts in suburban and rural locations, rather than increasing the density of our existing cities, to respond to the housing crisis. TFP are developing a prototype courtyard house, specifically aimed at less urban environments but still exploring issues of high density orientation, privacy and sustainability. TFP's studies show how the transition from large to small scale (for example a 3-bedroomed courtyard house) may be made. There are opportunities for pre-fabrication, factory production and speed of erection in order to create housing within a village/hamlet setting. It is entirely feasible to create high quality, modern and sustainable residential districts using the courtyard housing application. The Three Houses at Petersham show how even the most sensitive location can be extended and how the contemporary can sit alongside the traditional with no loss of amenity or reduction in quality.