The House In The Wood

Carmody Groarke’s first standalone home shows voluminous promise.

- Ellie Stathaki

Award-winning London-based architectural practice Carmody Groarke has just completed its first house – a single-family home on the north-western edge of Highgate Wood in north London. Aiming to create something modern that would, at the same time, embrace the nearby woods, the firm’s work on this landmark emphasised context, views and orientation.

‘In a suburb of typical Edwardian detached houses, a new home of different character was always going to be treated with suspicion,’ say the architects. ‘The form of the house was carefully composed to respond to the proportions of other houses on the street, and brick was chosen as the dominant material to give it coherence and a feeling of longevity within its neighbourhood.’