Common House

Common House has been designed to take advantage of unused garage sites. With the modern family car out-growing the standard garage, many garage sites have been abandoned and left to fall into disrepair – encouraging anti-social behaviour. These garages often back onto private gardens and can be difficult to develop due to complex ownership issues, overlooking and access constraints.

Common House addresses these issues and is based on the footprint of four standard garages. The house is 4.5m high (to the eaves) with the first floor located within the roof space to limit overshadowing of neighbouring gardens.

A private garden can be provided on the footprint of a further 4 garages; planning policy will dictate the garden area required and additional garage plots may be needed to meet the minimum garden area required.

Common House works efficiently as a single aspect detached house, however, this configuration can be easily adapted to allow the house to be dual or even triple aspect, semi or detached, depending on the constraints of the specific site.

The front door opens into a lobby which gives access to a WC, the kitchen/diner and living room. A ‘service module’ occupies the centre of the property and is elevated though to the roof. This houses all the mechanical requirements as well as the servicing needs of the property, containing these in one zone and allowing elements such as the kitchen and bathrooms to connect into it.

The first floor is located within the roof structure and has two large double bedrooms, a single bedroom and a family bathroom. The master bedroom has a dormer window, the other bedrooms have large roof lights instead of elevation windows which helps to reduce the mass of the building and reduce the risk of overlooking.

The house is Building Regulations Part M4 (2) compliant and with some small adaptations can be made to be M4 (3) adaptable.