Fox Hall House

Playfulness and Innovation

The concept of ambiguous edges became central to the design approach. Every space borrows from and shares the compact courtyard garden, creating a series of interconnected zones that serve multiple functions while maintaining strong visual connections. The design creates layered transitions between the exterior and interior, with ceiling planes extending beyond the building envelope to blur boundaries.

A cascading garden introduces planted elements on the upper level of the house. The landscape fringe off the upstairs main bedroom gives back to the neighborhood, providing neighbors with a green outlook. A curved window downstairs with planters brings the garden into interior spaces, while built-in seating areas create moments of pause at these threshold spaces.

Transformative Places, Holistic Benefits

Fox Hall House demonstrates how thoughtful design can maximise performance through multiple strategies. The thermal mass of masonry walls, combined with carefully calculated overhangs, creates excellent passive solar performance. The original house’s materials were largely retained and repurposed, minimizing waste and embodied energy. The cascading garden design helps manage seasonal water flow, echoing the site’s original wetland ecology.

The project’s success lies in its ability to create spatially rich experiences within modest means, where every element serves multiple purposes and boundaries blur between inside and out. Through thoughtful design and material selection, Fox Hall House achieves what great residential architecture should: it enriches daily life while contributing meaningfully to its neighborhood’s evolving architectural story.