The De Beauvoir Estate is an area of semi-detached villas which have elegant proportions and shallow, hipped roofs. Unusually, for an area of this kind, a number of later workshop buildings have been added to the Victorian fabric and one of these is directly opposite the site. The Sunken House combines certain attributes of its immediate neighbors. When seen from the street it appears to have the habitable volume of the houses around it, but the flat roof matches that of the workshop building across the road. This dialogue continues on its facades, with a brick masonry wall in contrast with the dark laminated timber panels.

The interior is also organized on a different basis than the Victorian houses where the main living spaces are located on a raised ground floor. Exploiting its infill site, the Sunken House stands in an excavated courtyard, which is not overlooked by the adjacent buildings. Although the full height of the house cannot be seen from the street, it is visible in the space containing the staircase. The bedrooms are on the first floor, and there is a large studio on the second floor which benefits from a view of other people’s gardens without intruding on their privacy...[+]