Set on a quiet residential street in Catford, southeast London, Castlands Road is a small, personal work of architecture. Designed and self-built by director Will Howard as a home for his young family, the project quietly transforms a former back garden into a calm and inviting three bedroom home.

The house is conceived as a “terraced house in waiting”, occupying a residual plot and completing a fragment of the street, with room for future neighbouring houses on both sides. It turns a former rear boundary into a new public face, contributing to the life of the neighbourhood with a quiet intent. A pitched roof recalls the local vernacular; and timber canopies are designed to shade the south facing openings; a simple, passive response shaped by climate and context.

Construction of the house draws on bio-based and progressively-sourced materials: ‘rescued’ bricks from a supplier who folded, an inner leaf of clay blocks, parge-coated for both airtightness and breathability; exposed British larch for the joists and rafters; and with solid oak and oak veneered plywood cabinetry used generously throughout. Every surface tells of its making; joinery, linings and furniture were crafted by hand, built slowly, in parallel with family life.

A house shaped by resourcefulness, care and proximity, Castlands Road is an architecture of process as much as outcome. It stands not as a showpiece, but as a quiet proposition: that making and building by hand can become an act of belonging.