Sensitively layering together old and new timbers, this tiny Victorian mews house by Tuckey Design Studio has taken the top prize for Interior Design at the 2024 Wood Awards.
This Knightsbridge home has been stripped back to its bare bones, revealing the tactile character of its timber lattice structure and offering intriguing insight into the building’s history.
The existing gnarled and textural timber structure has been married with a series of new solid timber interventions which transform the space allowing it to feel ‘generous and dynamic’.
The thoughtful juxtapositions between the exposed gnarled old timbers and the sharp and precise contemporary additions, including a curving staircase, stained midnight blue, create a rich celebration of timber in colour, texture, age, form, function and structure.
Built by bespoke shipbuilders, the prominently positioned sculptural staircase is crafted from hand-folded plywood. Cleverly masking its fixtures, the stair seems to levitate away from the wall, allowing shafts of light to enter the space and creating a dramatic transition to the upper floor, where dark roof trusses contrast strikingly with a plywood canopy ceiling.
Committed to retaining as much of the existing timber structure as possible, the design team incorporated new structural timber only where necessary, and reused existing material that was stripped away during renovation. Excess pitch pine rafters, for example, have been reinterpreted to form the body of a bespoke bench, supported by new Douglas fir legs.
Bough Terrace was built by Imperial Building, with joinery by Cube and wood supplied by Elliotts. The structural engineers were BC Structural Design.
Jim Greaves, lead Buildings judge of the Wood Awards and Principal of Hopkins Architects said:
“This small house is full of exquisite juxtapositions between lovingly restored historic fabric and sensitively designed new insertions.
“A hand folded, curved plywood staircase, in striking dark blue, winds sinuously up to a world of new and restored walls and roofs. A similar but concealed staircase leads down to the basement.
“A clear design principle visually delineates new work from old throughout the house. All in all, it is a tour de force of restoration work on a simple domestic interior.”
The Wood Awards building judges, a team of world-leading professionals, visited all 18 buildings shortlisted before deciding the winners, in one of the UK’s most rigorous assessments for any competition.
You can find out more information about all of the 2024 Wood Award winners by visiting www.woodawards.com.
As a not-for-profit competition, the Wood Awards can only happen with collaborative industry sponsorship. A huge thank you for continued support from The Carpenters’ Company, American Hardwood Export Council and Timber Development UK.
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