The Houseboat – an Experimental Architectural Design Project Developed by Solidspace

Welcome to our projects series where we present benchmarks of urban living – self developed by architects and creative city makers. This week we want to present you the single family house The Houseboat developed by Solidspace.

Roger Zogolovitch, Founder of Solidspace, is a practicing architect and independent developer with 40 years of experience in the field that he told us about in a recent interview. He has built an impressive portfolio of urban housing projects on gap sites in London – such as the Zog House, but also more experimental architectural design projects.

The Houseboat, an award-winning single house with a more organic form than other Solidspace rectilinear projects, is one of them. It is not a gap site project, but located on a beautiful site overlooking Poole Harbour on the south coast of England. It was designed in collaboration with Meredith Bowles of Mole Architects and the project was managed by Rebecca Granger Architects.

The house has been conceived as two upturned hulls propping themselves together facing the sea, and has been built with an in-situ concrete base and a Douglas Fir timber frame constructed shell. The plan is butterfly in shape. The building emerges with floor plates fanning out from this concrete structure. Accommodation is split between the two wings connected with steps and landings bridging the voids.

The arrangement of the split-level is designed using the Solidspace DNA which works on half levels and leads the eye from a first to second space and finally a third. The lower ground level accommodates the sleeping quarters which are acoustically separated from the rest of the open plan volume.

The upper ground floor provides a kitchen and dining room with terrace overlooking the sea, rising a few steps to the sitting room and concluding the eyrie at the top level.

The Eat/Live/Work sectional arrangement is maintained making a single volume under the protection of the upturned hulls, giving spatial clarity to form and the experience.

The Houseboat is the winner of a South West RIBA Award 2017 and has been shortlisted for World Architecture Festival Awards 2017 House/Future category.

As most of the houses build for Solidspace, this house was promoted and sold by Inhabit Homes, the company founded by Roger’s son Gus Zogolovitch that evolved from Solidspace.

photos: Rory Gardiner

Location:

Poole, Dorset, UK

Project Data:

• Architect: Meredith Bowles of Mole Architects
• Developer: Solidspace
• Planning/Construction:  – 2016
• Residential units: 1
• Storeys: 4
• Net saleable/rentable area: 255.5 sqm (2750 SF)