Mii Design

A Wooden Cube

A wooden cube ends a row of terraces in De Beauvoir Town, north London. Recently completed by David Adjaye, the house was designed for a photographer friend, Ed Reeve. The three-storey house is clad entirely in stained garden decking. Adjaye wanted the house to appear as though it had sunk within its own material,” says Reeve. “Not only is the house clad in decking, but so is the outside floor space and the perimeter walls.”

The pair met ten years ago when Reeve was hired to shoot a portrait of Adjaye. “We always wanted to do a house together, and we were actually looking for a plot of land together to do a building that we could split into two,” says Reeve. “As the years progressed, we sort of forgot about it, and then this site came up.”

What most impressed Reeve about the site was the view to the west, where the sun can be seen setting over ranks of well-kept gardens with beautiful trees. This view meant Reeve wanted a living room with a large west-facing picture window for the top of the house.

The kitchen is on the ground floor, to allow outside dining, and the three bedrooms are on the first floor. The window into the south-facing master bedroom is made of translucent white glass so that bamboo in a neighbor’s garden creates dramatic, striated shadows. The interiors were created by designer and architect Elizabeth Macleod.

Architect: David Adjaye