2nd Floor, 101 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DL
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Folly for a film-maker
Hertfordshire
The folly provides an intimate room at the bottom of the garden, replacing an existing timber cabin. The owner desired the ad-hoc character, and economy, of a tree house whilst maintaining year-round electric comfort. We exploited this contradiction throughout the design, playing upon the ambiguities of the surrounding ‘natural’ English landscape. Its rear entrance perched on a wooded knoll, the folly sits above a stream on a forest of telegraph poles, continuing the rows of the ash grove it overlooks. External ply shutters provide inhabitants with a Heath Robinson-like device to manipulate light, privacy and air, employing precisely machined yacht components for minimal effort. The shutters are lined with William Morris wallpaper, offering a varnished Victorian interpretation of the trees beyond. We look forward to seeing how the owner, guests and garden play with this stealth black toy-box.