Pink clouds in north London: architect Peter Morris builds a fairytale home
Pink arches, turquoise floors, a bathtub on the roof: the Cloud House in Gospel Oak divides opinion. Its architect calls it a love letter to his wife.
Symbolic image · Photo: The National Churches Trust / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
In the London district of Gospel Oak, architect Peter Morris has completed two offset, joined houses – one for himself and his partner, producer Emily Kennedy, the other for a neighbour. The Cloud House has a cloud-like, scalloped roofline and pink render. According to Dezeen, the decorative arches are made of polystyrene with a waterproof coating, and Morris positioned them himself. The pink and turquoise palette goes back to the couple's honeymoon in Miami and its art deco buildings.
The arches reference the listed St Martin's Church opposite, which architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner called “the craziest of London's Victorian churches”. Inside, Morris opted for turquoise epoxy floors, colour-saturated bathrooms and an emerald-green striped kitchen; there is a bathtub on the roof terrace. His home measures 133 square metres, the neighbour's 165. According to Wallpaper*, the project took ten years; Morris calls the interior “the museum of Peter and Emily”.
In September the house featured on the TV programme “Grand Designs”; reactions are sharply divided, Morris says. “I know that not everyone will love the Cloud House as much as we do,” he told Dezeen. The goal was a beautiful building that might create “a little moment of joy”: “In a way this building is an architectural love letter to my wife.”