LocationLeyton, London
Cost£30,000
ContractorStudio Bark Projects
StatusComplete
The screenwriter’s retreat, a garden studio built for creativity using hand-crafted sustainable materials
Holloway Lightbox is a photography studio, a screenwriter’s retreat and flexible family space at the bottom of the clients’ back garden. In a nod to the couple’s respective professions (photography and film), a series of handmade coloured tiles represent the digital age, creating a playful ‘pixelated’ façade. This modern, yet sustainable skin presents an emphatic juxtaposition between new and old, incorporating chalky surface tones, helping to complement the rigid Victorian masonry adjacent.
“A fantastic group of creative minds that seem to have no limits to what can be achieved.”
Jon Holloway, Client
The Form
Sunlight is directed into the building to create an inspiring, bright space. The form of the roof maximises south-westerly light through a full-width glazed opening, before sloping down towards the neighbouring garden. The 15 degree pitch of the roof matches the angle of the sun’s final rays before it nestles down behind the neighbouring row of terraces.
The Environment
The building shell was insulated using 150mm of natural timber fibre insulation, which exceeds current building regulation requirements. A concrete slab made of a cement mix using 50% GGBS (Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag) was used. GGBS is a by-product from the Steel Industry which dramatically reduces the embodied energy of the building. Whilst doing so it also provides useful thermal mass for the studio. A clean yet inviting entrance was achieved with a broad factory reconditioned low energy sliding door (Sunflex SVG99). Light also streams in through the roof light, which is a low-E double glazed Panaroof clear skylight. In order to improve ventilation there is a small insulated hatch into the structure behind the hung tiles; invisible to passers-by, but essential for air circulation after a long day of shooting!
The Build
Planning approval was granted in June 2015, and the build took roughly four weeks after that. It was carried out by Studio Bark Projects, assisted by two teams of architecture students from the University of East London. Studio Bark are passionate about involving architecture students in the construction process, as a vehicle for promoting diversity in the architecture industry, and giving students a unique live build experience to enhance the otherwise theoretical education journey.
Awards & Press
AJ Small Project Awards shortlisted the Holloway Lightbox in 2018.
In the Autumn of 2018 the space was opened to the public as part of Open House Weekend.
Student team
A big shout out to all the brilliant student assistants who helped to make this building a reality. To Lauretta, Athena, Alvin, Moiz, Sahand, Zi Xin, Nor Amirah, Mohamed, Mary, Thomas, Madihah and Afiqah.
