Haringey Brick Bungalow, Haringey, London

2025 RIBA London Award

Satish Jassal Architects for Shazad Ashiq
Contract value: £270,000
GIA: 66m²
Cost per m²: £4,090

This bungalow demonstrates what is possible on a seemingly inopportune and overlooked backland site, for a client without any previous development experience and only a modest budget.

Conceived pre-Covid as the clients’ own home, it has been built in a constrained yard behind their butcher’s shop. The  single-storey dwelling is accessed and constructed through a narrow pedestrian passage. Its layout fills the site with two offset volumes under asymmetrical, pyramidal roofs. This arrangement creates two diametrically located courtyards: an entrance courtyard to the front and a private courtyard to the rear. These buffer the interior from its immediately adjacent commercial neighbours and bring in light throughout the day. Rooflights on both apexes provide further light while maintaining privacy.

Internally, a single central living area is defined by two glulam coffered ceilings that bring an unexpected generosity to what is a minimum-area two-bedroom, three-person home. The valley between the two roof forms gives an implied boundary between kitchen/dining and living areas. Two bedrooms, one with en-suite shower room, and a bathroom are directly accessed off the central space and benefit from views into the courtyards. The arrangement avoids the loss of any precious area to corridors.

The building abuts its neighbours and sits on low-impact steel screw piles. The superstructure comprises a simple palette of materials combining loadbearing brick, certified sustainable structural timber and oak joinery, giving it a robust yet warm materiality. The detailing of these simple construction elements, whose use was necessitated by the restricted access, has been thoughtfully considered. Good levels of natural light and cross ventilation combine with a well-insulated and airtight building fabric. An air-source heat pump is the final component in making this a low-carbon bungalow. The sedum roof adds biodiversity and attenuates rainwater discharge from the site.

The jury felt that this project, through project architect Satish Jassal’s ambition to elevate the scheme beyond a more prosaic response to such sites, not only delivered a delightful home, but served as an exemplar of what can be achieved on these types of constrained sites that sit behind many of London’s high streets.

See the rest of the 2025 RIBA London winners here. And all our RIBA UK Award winners here.

View the full RIBA UK Awards 2025 process.

 

RIBA Regional Awards 2025 sponsored by Autodesk, EH Smith, Equitone and Velux