Black Box House, Islington Building Extension, Real Estate Redevelopment, Architecture Images

Black Box House in Islington

Building Architecture and Interior Project in England, UK – design by MATA Architects

20 May 2019

Black Box House in North London

Design: MATA Architects

Location: Islington, North London, England, UK

The dynamic nature of the façade and it’s manual control is rarely seen at this scale and in residential architecture.

The client for Black Box House are a professional couple leading busy and, at times, stressful lives including frequent travel.

MATA Architects were asked to imagine a replacement for an old and failing conservatory at first floor. The conservatory was thermally (and to a degree physically) separate from the rest of the floor.

In replacing the conservatory with a new extension there was an opportunity to better integrate this space into the rest of the first floor, thereby unlocking further unused space immediately adjacent to the conservatory.

MATA Architects’ brief was to provide a home office in the new space that could double as an occasional guest bedroom with en suite bathroom.

key Challenges
1. Achieving maximum levels of daylight and direct sunlight on a tight site with a high degree of overlooking from neighbouring buildings.
2. Very ambitious (low) budget.

The bespoke shutters, cladding and structural frame (consisting of primary members in steel and secondary members in timber) were manufactured off site and tested in factory conditions before shipping to site. Assembly of the above elements on site took one week.

The extension is constructed largely in timber, from a large portion of the structural frame to the cladding and shutters. All timber cladding was FSC certified Siberian Larch.
The extension benefits from a green roof.