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Murray Mews consists of three houses, each on a very small plot. Skillful interpretation of building and planning regulations resulted in a design which made the maximum effective use of the sites by locating the houses directly on the front boundary, leaving a private courtyard to the rear, and preserving the visual integrity of the mews as a street. The internal planning of each house responded to particular needs of the occupants, a doctor with a strong interest in art, a husband and wife who were both barristers, and a skilled trade craftsman. The introduction of top light and a concern for individual privacy were strong elements of the design.

The street door opens straight into the kitchen which is raised a few steps to look over a worktop and built-in concrete table to the living room and a glazed wall with the courtyard beyond. The glass wall of the living room, like that of the kitchen-dining room at Creek Vean, is placed a metre or so forward of where the ceiling ends, so that more day-lit space is created. Standing in the kitchen, one is aware of bright top-lighting, then of a band of dimmer, intimate space in the living room, and then again of a band of brighter space along the window wall.

At an angle parallel to the sloping, glazed roof in the double-height kitchen, an open staircase runs up to the bathroom and bedrooms, with a few more steps leading up to a long top-lit picture gallery. From the balcony wall of this space one can look down into the kitchen as if from a minstrel gallery.

Courtyard, living room, kitchen and glazed 'attic' are thus related in a continuous spatial liaison; only the bedrooms and bathroom in the U-shaped middle level of the house are enclosed and separate. It is as if the medieval English 'Great Hall' has been miniaturised and centred on the kitchen.

Steve Jobs Theater

2017 - Cupertino, USA

Budenberg Haus, Urban Splash

2005 - Manchester, UK

The Murray

2018 - Hong Kong, China

Chesa Futura

2004 - St Moritz, Switzerland

Address Istanbul

2022 - Istanbul, Türkiye

Kamakura House

2004 - Kamakura, Japan

DUO Central Park

2018 - Sydney, Australia

Maack Schreiter House

1994 - Lüdenscheid, Germany

Legacy of Bodegas Faustino Winery

2024 - Oyón, Rioja Alavesa, Spain

Creek Vean house

1966 - Feock, UK