New Road Esher

Returning from Hong Kong, a young family asked Alan Higgs Architects to design them this new home in leafy Surrey.  The 600 square meter house provides a contrast:  externally it responds to its vernacular streetscape, with gable roofs, prominent chimneys, white walls, picturesque compositions, but inside contains flowing, modern spaces that capture the sun and views and frame internal vistas.  

The site had great potential: a wedge shape – narrow facing the street and fanning out asymmetrically at the rear with a south-facing orientation, which strongly influenced the house plan, resulting in two parallel north-south axes. 

The first extends from the entrance through a long circulation gallery, with a fine steel and timber staircase against panelled walls that rise through three levels.  Its other wall and floor finishes are continuations from those outside. The second shifts to centre on the rear garden, through the pavilion-like family living room.   

The house consists of three main living rooms, a study, six bedrooms, and internal garage, and is ventilated by a heat-recovery system that warms air via underground ducts before it enters the building.