
M ost of us are susceptible to curious compulsions as we age. Some run marathons, climb mountains or enroll in gruelling physical feats of another flavour. Others write the big novel. But if you're an architect? It's all about the self-build.
In 2015 Will Burges was residing quite happily in a Sixties house on the Dulwich Estate with his wife, Sam, a studio manager, and their two young children. He suspects his 31/44 Architects co-founder Stephen Davies, by then a self-build veteran, had something to do with the siren call. "I thought, 'Oh, God, he's doing his third one, I should at least have a go.
But I wasn't really thinking that it would come off." Both were well versed in the acquisition of scrappy oddments of land, from old garages to side returns. Davies had turned the pursuit of these pockets into an art form, tracking the hundreds of hopeful letters he'd directed to London letterboxes in a dizzying spreadsheet.
Several years earlier Burges had clocked a Fifties house in nearby Crystal Palace with a particularly generous side garden. "I plucked up the courage to write this one letter and amazingly, they replied and said they'd consider it," he says. This was 2015, and the owners of said letterbox had grown restless after several requests to build an sizable extension on their wraparound corner plot had been denied.
Conversations continued for a couple of years as Burges drew up plans for an ambitious family home that would draw on decades of practice, on travel memories, on buildings he'd known and loved.
He secured consent before buying the plot, in a chicken-and-egg style deal that relied upon the neighbours upping sticks.
This story is from the May 29, 2024 edition of Evening Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 29, 2024 edition of Evening Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In

Are you ready for medieval-core?
No one was more surprised than medieval armourer Matthew Finchen.

Worth the wait This is a beautifully written triumph
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's first novel since 2013's Americanah is a winner

Low-budget indie film Anora wins big at the Oscars
“The more Hollywood changes, the more it remains the same,” writes Ty Burr.

Forget the Trump noisepeace could now be possible
There's much to fixate on, but it's best to judge the President on the substance

Is it the final call for the Heathrow villagers?
Life with the residents whose homes could be destroyed if a third runway touches down

The Fat Badger, London's first invite-only pub
A riotously fun boozer that doesn't officially exist? No wonder celebs are secretly flocking here

Marlon James on why Kingston is Jamaica's beating cultural heart
Whether it’s parties, patties or patois, this Caribbean capital is a non-stop celebration, says the Booker Prize-winning author

The London socialite. His aristocrat killer. And a mother's search for justice
The brutal, ketamine-fuelled killing of a public schoolboy shocked the world. In our new true-crime podcast, we tell the real story

“Last year's Festival was brutal, but we're ready to put it right”
The Guinness Village is, to Cheltenham racegoers, something of a field of dreams.

Me, Marrakech and I: How to ace a solo female trip
I first visited Marrakech with my then-boyfriend in 2004, when I spent my days getting lost in the labyrinthine souks and witnessing snake charmers hypnotise cobras. Over 20 years later, I decided to see how it fared for females going it alone.