King’s Cross

Black walls, built-in raw concrete furniture and a fish pond in a lightwell define Lost House, a residential project designed by David Adjaye in London’s King’s Cross, which has recently come on the market.Royal Gold Medal-winner Adjaye, the founder of Adjaye Associates, designed Lost House in 2004.

Top: the swimming pool. Above: a central lightwell holds a fish pond
The house has come back on the market recently, granting an opportunity to see the interiors of one of the architect’s early residential works in detail.

Original features have been preserved, including an all-green sunken cinema room and a water gardens in planted courtyards that double as lightwells.

A courtyard garden in a lightwell
Hidden behind an unassuming brick facade in an alleyway, Lost House was formerly a delivery yard complete with a loading platform.
Adjaye Associates turned the concrete loading platform into a plinth for an upper-level swimming pool with black-painted sides next to the pink-walled main bedroom.

The ground floor is an open plan living space
On the ground floor, there is a large open plan living, dining and kitchen area with a double-height ceiling.
The sunken conversation pit with a cinema room-style projector, complete with zesty lime walls, built-in bookshelves and wide sofas, is off to one side.

Raw concrete countertops are part of the kitchen
Three tall, glass-walled lightwells stretch up to the black-painted timber eaves of the roof, bringing natural daylight down into the room instead of windows.
In the centre of the living area is a lightwell filled with a fishpond.

A sunken conversation pit is entirely bright green
The square courtyards in the lightwells are planted with tropical greenery. At the back, next to the kitchen, the courtyard features wooden decking around clusters of circular concrete benches inset with the same grey pebbles that surround them.
The black chipboard walls, ceiling and exposed timber beams are reflected in the shiny black resin floor.

Concrete benches in the courtyard garden
Adding to the industrial look are the thick concrete elements of the built-in kitchen, which forms a continuous countertop and splashback.

Ten key projects by RIBA Royal Gold Medal winner David Adjaye

A concrete element continues from the kitchen to the living area, were it forms a low bench upholstered in black leather cushions.

Black walls and floors around the pool and bathroom
Steps lead to the raised ground floor, where the old loading bay plinth supports the lap pool. Black stone tiles surround the pool, which is part of the master bathroom for the main bedroom.
Two stone sinks sit on a concrete shelf below mirrored cabinets. A wet-room style shower allows the residents to wash before and after swimming.

The master bedroom is entirely pink
This bathroom connects directly to the back of the master suite, which has a separate toilet and a long corridor connecting to the stairs. The bedroom is decorated all pink to contrast with the ink-black interiors
A second bedroom is located on this floor, with a third bedroom located up on the first floor that is currently being used as a home office.

An upstairs room is a work from home office
David Adjaye founded Adjaye Associates in 2000 and began his career designing high-end residential projects in north London such as Lost House. Other notable all-black houses by the studio include Dirty House and Sunken House.
Photography is courtesy of United Kingdom Sotheby’s International Realty.

Read more: More