Brick terraced houses line both sides of the traditional English high street in East Dulwich—but neatly tucked away, behind the neighborhood cheesemonger and a boulangerie, is an industrial, avant-garde residence of which there is no hint at all from the roadside.
The Yard House, a passion project in a South London suburb so unusual the British series "Grand Design" featured it in a 40-minute episode, sits on the site of a former scrap yard and channels its past through the use of raw materials. The owners, who spent several arduous years constructing the four-bedroom home, are now selling it for £1.95 million (US$2.56 million).
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The U-shaped home is built around a central courtyard, from which the home got its name, accessed from a private, gated entrance the owners have decorated with a pop art mural. The gate opens into the large yard surrounded on three sides by the industrial-looking property built from corrugated cement and translucent polycarbonate siding.
The polycarbonate allows soft natural light to flood the interiors and conversely, illuminates the courtyard at night.
"It also glows in the evening like a lantern," said Georgia Grunfeld, head of advisory at agency The Modern House, which listed the home several weeks ago. "It’s really beautiful."
The material, called Rodeca, is the same that Pritzker prize-winning architects Herzog & De Meuron used at a performing arts center in nearby Deptford.
The contrast of raw materials and clean geometry continues inside, where materials include a mirror-like steel kitchen counter, polished concrete floors and exposed cinder blocks.
"As soon as you walk into the house you can tell how considered the design is—not particularly surprising considering it was done by the award-winning designer Jonathan Tuckey," Ms. Grunfeld told Mansion Global.
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The core living spaces, including the kitchen and living room have double height ceilings and from a walkway overhead, "almost makes you feel like you’re stood on a ship," Ms. Grunfeld added.
"The space is also really flexible—the current owners use it as a studio/workshop space, as well as their home," she said.
The home was built with separate wings for the bedrooms, two upstairs and a master suite downstairs, and the studio space, which is comprised of a music room and two workshops. Though the ample studio spaces could be used as bedrooms.
The second-floor walkway and much of the upstairs are floored in rough particle board the owners have left exposed but varnished to give it a purposeful and more polished look.
The visionaries behind the home are owners and creatives Steve and Tracy Fox, who work in the film industry as a prop painter and prop acquirer respectively. They bought the underlying lot for £400,000 (US$525,000), and put roughly £600,000 (US$788,000) more into the property, the couple told "Grand Design" host Kevin McCloud.
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The show also detailed the arduous construction process, which required tedious council planning permissions and rerouting of all the plumbing for the neighboring houses in order to dig a foundation for the home.
Their design raised more than a few eyebrows, including the plumber who installed a multi-colored bathroom featuring a green toilet and soft pink bathtub, Ms. Fox said on the TV show. Now, the couple is looking to move on.
"They’re looking to move out of London," Ms. Grunfeld said. "They’re currently exploring options and figuring out where they want to settle down."