dRMM were commissioned by an artist to build a studio on a backstreet in Deptford, a site that was then being used as a scaffolders? yard. His brief was a simple room to paint in, free of distractions, that only let light enter from the north – indirect light giving cool continuity of light when painting in oils. The site was located within a small mixed-residential and commercial street behind Deptford High Street. It is is an end-of-terrace plot within a service yard off Comet Street, which had been previously leased out for storage. Rubbish was habitually dumped around the site before the studio was built; it was merely a concrete slab, void of any trees or features.
“Our proposal was a simple, north-lit single-volume the form and materiality of which aimed to improve the character of the street without compromising its continuity. The studio does not mimic the adjacent houses, but is designed to be of similar scale and to complement the existing buildings. The client required indirect light and controllable natural ventilation with complete obliteration of shadows or glare. Our response was a wedge-shaped box built in cross-laminated timber with light entering through a huge openable ETFE skylight. This single window, at 4x5metres the largest of its kind in the UK, was positioned to act like a big hungry eye, sucking in light from the northern sky. The building is clad in zinc, its seams wrapping around each corner. The net effect of only one door and one e...