Teddington Folly

This output involves the extension and refurbishment of a listed terraced cottage, completed in 2016. Over and above the programmatic and practical aspects of the work the project explored the the classical language of architecture as a site for ongoing enquiry. This question is one returned to recurrently by Smith and Taylor, in a manner unique to their practice. Classicism is investigated as a living language, not one which is governed by sentimentality of form or tectonic, but one which must engage with contemporary modes of construction and of living. The informal context of the rear of the cottage, and a budget of modest meant that the economic, material and legal contexts of the project impinged on the classical orders in such a way as to allow a new engagement with architectural character and language.