Bere Admin June 6th, 2007

bere:architects were last night presented with the Small House of the Year award for the Focus House project in North London at the British Homes Awards 2007. The awards, presented by Jack Pringle, President of the RIBA and Fiona Fullerton, columnist for the Daily Mail, were sponsored by The Mail on Sunday, NHBC and BRE. bere:architects had also been shortlisted in the Home for the Future category for Comfort-Haus.

Read the article from Property on Sunday

The Mail On Sunday

6 June 2007

Passers-by on this Victorian street in Finsbury Park, North London, might wonder how a family house could be slotted into this sliver of land. The ground floor of Focus House opens from a width of just 2.8m at the front through to 7m at the rear. The skill of bere:architects in creating an impressive home on this wedge-shaped site won praise from our judges. ‘For this small site the architect has been extremely inventive in form and construction,’ they said.

Focus House, built by Vision Build, contrasts with the beige brick buildings surrounding it, but has been designed as a low-cost, low-energy, low-maintenance version of the standard family home.

On the ground floor is the living space and dining area. Large Scandinavian-made sliding windows span the rear looking out over a garden. At first-floor level there is a study, two bedrooms and a bathroom; on the second floor a master bedroom.

An Austrian system of construction uses cross-laminated timber with Foamglas insulation. The zinc skin provides a durable exterior and further insulates the structure. The form and method of construction means only minimal heating is required. A solar thermal installation allows the house to generate up to 60 per cent of its hot water.

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