Butterfly House

Project Info

Nestled within a small corner plot in Esher, the timber-frame Butterfly House carefully explores form and material to provide a compact home supporting multigenerational living.

Set in the southern tip of the garden of the client’s main house, this self-contained, adaptable two-bedroom home has been designed to enable the client’s mother to live an independent, lightly assisted life well into the future.

Constructed entirely from timber frame and externally wrapped in charred cladding, the distinct splayed form of the house responds to its constrained triangular site. Four pitched volumes fan out to frame views and prevent overlooking, whilst a large open-plan living space is characterised with a striking inverted butterfly roof.

The roof-forms are expressed internally with exposed larch beams that create varying feelings of compression and expansion as the roof rises to a row of high-level clerestory glazing, pouring light into the spaces throughout the day.

Consideration of future climatic conditions has shaped the design, which incorporates near Passivhaus levels of insulation and controllable blinds.