CORBEL HOUSE
Mid-century houses are typically poorly insulated, damp, and inadequately ventilated. Rather than demolish the existing building, Rock Architects kept its original walls, roof structure and floor joists, and rebuilt the envelope around them: new insulation, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and the removal of thermal bridging throughout. The result is a comfortable, low-energy home built around what was already there.
At ground level, stepped Cambridge buff brick corbels shade the east- and west-facing glazing from solar gain and tie the house to the material history of the city. From any of the front doors, the view runs straight through the house to the garden behind, and the same brick continues across the threshold and into the rooms, where the corbels reframe several of the interior openings. A sedum roof supports local biodiversity. Internally, the material palette stays deliberately limited, Douglas fir joinery, terrazzo flooring, and the original floor joists left exposed, giving the house a calm, cohesive feel throughout. The same stepped motif continues through the custom joinery, delivering a unified material language from the brickwork to the furniture.
Rock Architects see the project as a position on the wider housing stock. Most of Britain’s homes were not built for current or future climate conditions, and few can simply be demolished and replaced. Corbel House is an example of adapting what already exists instead.
