A pastel pink facade cut into oversized arches stops pedestrians on Vicars Road in London’s Gospel Oak neighborhood. The three-storey building, called Cloud House, is a pink arches london home that holds two adjoining homes. Peter Morris Architects designed the project, and its colors and curves bring an unexpected burst of color and personality to London’s architectural landscape.
The name refers to the soft, rounded forms that shape the exterior. Arches frame the windows, entrances, and terraces of this house, and they repeat across the facade in a steady rhythm. The pink finish makes the walls look molded rather than built, as if the house were shaped from clay or candy.
The pink facade also brings to mind other bold colour experiments in residential design. Pink Coliving Haven Inspired by Sound Waves shows how a single hue can define an entire building and its landscape.
Designer: Peter Morris Architects
The exaggerated arches and uneven proportions give the building’s arched facade a distinct character. Some of the openings read almost like faces, which makes the facade look cheerful from the street. Passersby tend to slow down, look at the silhouette, and wonder what the interiors hold.
The Story Behind This Pink Arches London Home
The design draws on two sources. Architect Peter Morris and his wife, producer Emily Kennedy, spent their honeymoon in Miami, where pastel Art Deco buildings shaped their ideas about curves and color. Morris also looked to the dramatic arches of nearby St Martin’s Church, which ties the house to its neighborhood.
The house relies on conventional construction. Structural steel and blockwork form the main building. The decorative arches are made from Build Lite polystyrene, a dense and recyclable material. A waterproof coating and textured finish let the lightweight elements sit flush with the pink exterior.
Morris and Kennedy live in the smaller of the two homes, which measures 133 square meters. Color carries through the interior of this house. The ground floor combines living, dining, and kitchen areas around a pale pink island that measures three meters long. Green-and-white striped Plykea cabinetry and turquoise epoxy flooring extend the exterior’s palette indoors.
Colorful bathrooms appear throughout the house. A four-meter turquoise skylight runs toward the rooftop terrace, which is enclosed by pink arched walls and includes an outdoor bathtub.
The neighboring home is larger, at 165 square meters. It has four bedrooms on the lower floors and an open-plan living area on the upper level. Barrel-vaulted ceilings repeat the curves outside. A south-facing terrace and a larger rooftop space extend the architectural language. Unlike the Morris and Kennedy residence in this building, this home was handed over as a blank canvas for its owners to finish.
If Cloud House has you thinking about how homes can break from convention, Iconic Modernist Homes by Bo Bardi and Neutra offers a look at famous houses that pushed architectural boundaries in their own eras.
The house has also appeared on television, in an episode of Grand Designs. Its unconventional appearance has attracted both admiration and criticism.
Cloud House turns ordinary parts of a house, such as windows, doorways, and terraces, into playful shapes. Its scale is modest, but the facade changes how the whole block looks. This building shows how far a single color and a repeated curve can carry residential architecture on a residential street.
Source: yankodesign.com
Frequently asked questions
Who designed the Cloud House pink arches home in London?
Peter Morris Architects designed the Cloud House project. The three-storey building on Vicars Road in London’s Gospel Oak neighborhood holds two adjoining homes.
What materials were used to build Cloud House’s decorative arches?
The decorative arches are made from Build Lite polystyrene, which the article describes as dense and recyclable. The main building is formed from structural steel and blockwork.
How large are the two homes inside Cloud House?
The smaller home, where architect Peter Morris and producer Emily Kennedy live, measures 133 square meters. The neighboring home is larger at 165 square meters and has four bedrooms on the lower floors.
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