In London, a Compact Home With a Tiny Carbon Footprint Seeks £1M
Paper House Project stacked this high-performance house across three levels on a 430-square-foot site, using light wells and large windows to bring in sunshine and park views.
Location: Greenview House, Newington Green, London N16
Price: £1,000,000
Year Built: 2024
Architect: Paper House Project
Footprint: 830 Square Feet (2 Beds, 2 Baths)
Lot Size: 0.01 Acres
From the Agent: "Greenview House is a new-build, two-bedroom, thermally efficient family home on a highly constrained 40-square-meter backland site overlooking Butterfield Green in north London. Designed using a fabric-first approach, the house combines a CLT superstructure with a highly insulated building envelope, triple glazing, an air-source heat pump, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and solar photovoltaics to minimize operational energy demand while ensuring the building services remain discreet, allowing the architecture to take center stage.
The house is organized around the way we live, with each floor supporting a different part of the day. The lower ground floor is for sleep and work, providing a naturally quieter and calmer environment. The ground floor is used for cooking, dining and socializing, while the upper floor is dedicated to relaxing, benefiting from the best natural light and elevated views across the park.
Although the footprint is only 40 square meters, the house was conceived as a series of interconnected spaces linked by front and rear light wells. These bring daylight deep into the plan, create long sight lines, and strengthen visual connections between floors, making the house feel significantly more spacious than its compact footprint suggests."
Paper House Project used prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) components to assemble the structural shell in under five days, reducing site disruption while improving thermal and acoustic performance.
Photo by French & Tye
Photo by French & Tye
The three-story home is organized as a series of interconnected double-height spaces, with front and rear light wells linking the floors visually. The lower level is reserved for sleeping and working, the ground floor for cooking and dining, and the top floor for relaxing with views across the park.
Photo by French & Tye
Photo by French & Tye
Just inside the ground-floor entry, the hallway incorporates built-in storage, coat hooks, and a small seating nook.
Photo by French & Tye
Photo by French & Tye
The dining area sits beside an internal picture window overlooking the double-height atrium with Muuto Rime pendants. On the opposite side of the room, a living wall brings greenery into the space.
Photo by French & Tye
Photo by French & Tye
The custom kitchen features oak-veneer cabinetry with integrated appliances. The counters and backsplash are Caesarstone. Open shelving and a downdraft extractor are built into the island to keep sight lines clear through the space.
Photo by French & Tye
Photo by French & Tye
At the top of the custom solid-oak staircase, a floor-to-ceiling window opens the second-floor living room to views across Butterfield Green.
Photo by French & Tye
Photo by Nick Dearden
The second floor has a rear roof terrace.
Photo by Nick Dearden
Photo by Nick Dearden
The two bedrooms are located on the lower level, with extended ceiling heights, polished concrete floors, and direct access to private courtyards.
Photo by Nick Dearden
The upper-level bathroom has a bathtub, while the lower-level bathroom has a shower. Brushed stainless-steel fixtures, matte white cabinetry, honed Caesarstone, and pale Claybrook tiles keep the palette simple and restrained.
Photo by Nick Dearden
Photo by French & Tye
Greenview House replaced a derelict garage in a small gated mews tucked behind a traditional terrace. Sited between two other homes and reached by a pedestrian passage from Milton Grove, it has shared storage for bikes and trash bins.
Photo by Nick Dearden
Photo by French & Tye
According to the architects, the home has an Energy Performance Certificate rating of 97A.
Photo by French & Tye
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