12/08/2020
We worked closely with The Singletons to create a unique combination of contemporary and modern classic aesthetics to create their dream home in London.
With a dilapidated white façade the priority for renovation, the queen of colours, black, offered the ideal starting point; contemporary, strong, uncluttered and inherently Victorian.
The name references the Black Queen, an 18th century coffee house and tea gardens, functioning as a leisure place when Dalston was a rural retreat for Londoners.
St Philip’s house, an unsympathetically extended 1860’s mid terrace villa who’s history has mirrored the fortunes of its locality.
The Singleton family commissioned Bloc+Bloc to design a high quality family home, a retreat to bring up children whilst being able to entertain family and friends alike. From the outset, it was clear this would be a collaboration between two schools of thought. Bloc+Bloc founder, Satyajit Das, who previously worked at Foster and Partners, and the Singletons love for modern classical. The project was about working closely with the Singletons to find a language of harmony and beauty between genres, referencing and restoring the past whilst bringing the house up to modern efficiency standards, to meet future needs and create pleasure for its occupants.
Period features have been restored with classical elements intertwined with bespoke modernist details and a contemporary palette. New windows cut into the rear facade and the asymmetrical rear extension with generous sculpted rooflight openings allows beautiful light to illuminate the open plan space, the new heart of the family home. The bold black rear is clad with softening charred cedar timber reminiscent of barns in the English countryside.
