First prize, RIBA ‘Light Roof’ competition
Formerly workshops, the rectangular plot for Blink House is bounded by high brick walls and is accessed by a narrow lane to the south. A busy road lies to the west, a small park to the east. Planning constraints require the walls to remain intact and any proposed building to be limited to a single storey above ground, with only the roof visible above the top of the wall.
The proposal is to excavate to basement level; setting the retaining walls beyond the brick walls’ line of repose maintains their structural integrity and provides a linear garden at ground level to the east and west. A further landscaped strip inside the retaining walls allows a fully glazed elevation to face these internal top-lit gardens. At the north and south ends a new two storey wall, part retaining, part cantilevered, supports 1m deep engineered timber beams at 2.4m centres that span the entire length of the house. Perpendicular to these are shallow timber beams also at 2.4m centres, forming a regular grid – the openings required for natural light and views – and these cantilever over the existing brick walls.
Blink House adopts the principle of periscopes in two rows along the east and west edges of the roof, affording lateral views beyond the site. The upper mirrors are housed in distinctive Cor-ten clad insulated cowls. The lower mirrors are at basement and ground levels in the linear gardens, serving bedrooms and living spaces respectively. The mirrors are virtual windows: ‘windowscopes’; the traditional periscope shafts are omitted, retaining the openness of the garden strip. Views of the outside are glimpsed only from carefully considered points. A physical model was constructed to prove this works.
The roof openings above the ground floor contain circular skylights. Mechanised, rotating and tilting white aluminium baffle discs above and below each skylight allow total control of how much sunlight and daylight enter the building. Outer discs can admit beneficial solar gains in winter but deflect summer sun; internal discs allow light to bounce onto the beams or ceilings or admit light directly. Within the rim of each internal baffle are circular LED strips that give direct or indirect lighting options.
The baffles form a vibrant, visually rhythmic ceiling plane, blinking to the sky.