A remarkable translucent glass house has won a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) award.
Built on a small patch of land in Lyham Road, Slip House – known to locals as the “ice cube” took home the medal for the best newly designed private house.
The building, described as “simplistic and sculptural”, is made up of three boxes which sit on top of each other, creating a studio workplace downstairs and living quarters above. It is set below a roof walled garden, which covers the entire top of the building. It also featured in the Channel 4 programme Grand Designs, presented by Kevin McLoud
The RIBA judges said rather cryptically: “Slip House demonstrates an admirable commitment to the creation of an exemplary low-energy house, with a suite of sustainable enhancements that are integrated effectively into the building design.
“However, at no point do the sustainable ambitions of the project crowd out or dominate the refined quality of the spaces that are created. “Adding “Little wonder then the project was one of Kevin McCloud’s favorite ‘Grand Designs’, one he described as an urban sanctuary.”
Modern marvel or eyesore? What do you make of the ice cube?
There is a context to architecture. To say that this building “at no point do the sustainable ambitions of the project crowd out or dominate the refined quality of the spaces that are created” is jargonistic clap trap. The problem for me is exactly that , that it does crowd out and dominated the space in which it finds itself. It is an ill-judged intrusion into another architectural realm. When someone can seemingly casually place three shoe boxes on top of each other and claim some architectural prize, then you know there’s something seriously wrong with modern architecture. It’s energy efficiency is a bonus, but any modern building should be able to achieve such efficiencies with good design, traditional or new.
[…] Another Brixton home to feature on Grand Designs is The Slip House, in Lyham Road. […]
I like the building and it seems to fit in with Lyham road, but £1.5m for a two bedroom house seems optimistic.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42165521.html
Really interesting reading – thank you Brixton blog for these thought-provoking pieces.
Building looks great!