Meridian House

The brief

A family home on the edge of Hampstead Heath demanded a building that was simultaneously urban and verdant — a precise geometric form that dissolves into its landscape setting. The clients, a family of four with deep roots in both modernist art and natural materials, asked for a house that felt like an extension of the park itself.

We responded with a long, low composition of load-bearing concrete and Douglas fir, its west façade entirely glazed to frame the heath like a living painting. The plan organises living around a central courtyard that acts as a breathing lung — drawing light deep into the section and creating a protected garden within the city.

Interior material choices are deliberately restrained: poured concrete floors with underfloor heating, white-pigmented oak joinery, and plaster walls left rough-textured to catch the quality of light as it shifts through the day. The furniture is a curated mix of twentieth-century pieces and site-specific commissions.