The Covert
House
Architects: DSDHA
www.dsdha.co.uk
From the architect. DSDHA has completed
a family home, known as the Covert House,
which lies hidden from view in the heart
of a conservation area in Clapham Old
Town,London.
Set in a pastoral landscape of mature trees
and gardens, the house acts a case study
for testing several hypotheses. These span
from interrogating the idea of the ‘domestic’
at the beginning of the twenty-first century,
through to how sustainability might be
integrated into high quality design without
compromise. In addition, at a strategic urban
scale it asks how a global city like London
might provide new housing within its fiercely
defended low-density backlands, close to
the historic centre.
As a modest family home, the house is
designed with a few simple rules; to use
the most sustainable design principles
possible whilst deploying a limited material
palette, yet creating a sense of domesticity
within a concrete armature, that does not
disturb its sensitive setting and the 23
neighbouring properties adjoining the site.
Materials are either concrete - cast on site,
left raw and unfinished, or precise and highly
articulated - read against ‘whiteness’, be it
in the form of natural light, controlled and
carefully calibrated to bring animation and
delight deep into the plan, or represented
though the use of white as a finish for all the
remaining surfaces beyond the concrete.
The resultant design is precise and sculpted;
materially rich yet calm as a pl