ROAR Architects and Nina+Co swaddle London house with cork cladding

London practice ROAR Architects and design studio Nina+Co have wrapped a 1970s house in Tottenham in cork, turning a "passive facade into a community touchpoint".

Designed for Nina+Co's founder and her family, Nina's House is a "deep retrofit" of a 1970s clergy house originally built for the church next door.

The revamp was carried out by ROAR Architects in collaboration with Nina+Co with a focus on updating the existing fabric and improving the house's thermal performance.

The studios wrapped the exterior in panels of expanded cork, which has a dark and mottled look. The result is a tactile facade with rounded corners, designed to feel gentle and safe for small children.

Nina+Co's founder, Nina Woodcroft, had used cork on another project and was fascinated by its versatility and regenerative qualities. Cork is a renewable material harvested from the bark of cork oak trees.

The material was chosen for its durability and insulating properties, but also to give Nina's House a strong presence on the street, becoming a conversation starter for passers-by and visitors.

"We wanted a warm and cosy home for our family – low-energy, fossil-fuel-free, and made using natural, non-toxic materials wherever possible," Woodcroft told Dezeen.

"Dark expanded cork is made by steaming, which activates the natural binders within the bark. It's an incredibly useful, truly natural material that also happens to smell amazing," she continued.

"Beyond performance, its tactile surface draws people in – school children stroke it, neighbours ask questions, turning a passive facade into a community touchpoint," added ROAR Architects founder Craig Rosenblatt.

One of the design challenges on the project was securing approval for the cork facade, given that the material is still relatively rare in the UK. This led the team to gather UK case studies and work with manufacturers in Portugal – the world's leading cork producer – to gain consent.

The cork cladding is expected to last up to 25 years, and beyond that, a lime render can be applied over the top to refresh the appearance and seal it.

Inside Nina's House, the design team remodelled the fragmented downstairs layout to create better flow, and brought its porch and small garage into the thermal envelope.

Cork was also used on the floors, while the walls were finished with natural lime-based plaster wherever the budget allowed. Pine floorboards that had to be removed for structural works were kept and reworked into ceiling finishes.

At the kitchen's heart is a chunky island designed by Woodcroft and made by local joiners Craftworks Productions out of hardwood from a London Plane tree that fell in Soho Square in 2022, narrowly missing a house.

Westminster Council gave the tree to Fallen & Felled, a company that rescues urban trees and mills them into hardwood timber to make furniture.

Other stand-out details of the interior include a recycled plastic countertop in the kitchen and storage made by the family from timber offcuts.

The gas supply to Nina's House has been removed and replaced with an air-source heat pump and underfloor heating, while inefficient glazing was replaced.

Other homes with cork cladding featured on Dezeen include The Cork and Wood House in Spain by Gurea Arquitectura Cooperativa and the angular Casa 9 completed by LCA Architetti on the border between Italy and Switzerland.

The photography is by French+Tye.

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