In Ceiling and Wall Speakers: Hidden House- Hogarth Architects

The Hidden House, Kensington

Ian Hogarth of Hogarth Architects is fervent about light and space and this passion drove him to design and build an outstanding, ecofriendly, luxury home in an almost unimaginably small space in Kensington: a project certainly worthy of its inclusion in Channel 4’s Grand Designs and Grand Designs Revisited. Succinctly put by Ian, people want heat but not radiators in their homes and equally they want good quality sound but have no visual intrusion from loudspeakers in their properties. Portioned off from a generous back garden, this end-of-mews site lies sandwiched between a row of four-storey Kensington townhouses and the West London railway line. While there was existing planning permission for a duplicate of the small Victorian houses surrounding it, the potential to stretch these constraints and create a spacious and contemporary family home was evident. A marriage between the traditional mews setting and a desire for a modern space was found by concealing the majority of the building behind a ‘rabbit-hole’ style entrance, effectively creating a ‘Hidden House’.

The ‘hole in the wall’ concept came from the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night; they claim to be unchanged by fame and still living in the same old terraced houses in Liverpool, except that behind the original front doors lies an amazing warehouse space from four properties being knocked into one. The property conforms to its planning permission for a duplicate build, but the house has an ‘iceberg’ massing: more than half of the floor space is hidden underground in an extensive basement. The outside appearance was intended to be as low impact as possible: by rebuilding the mews wall and replacing the original garden gate with a blue/black mirror door, the scheme would blend within its existing quaint, cobbled surroundings. Additionally, with time and with careful planting the building will ‘disappear’ back into the original wilderness in which it was built.

Inside, it is both minimalist and decadent; pared-back, simple design meets ostentatious colour-changing lighting inspired by the illuminations at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Stairs immediately to the right of the entrance lead down to the basement, which has come to be the most popular family domain. It holds a large entertaining space comprising of a flashing-fluoro dance floor complete with DJ booth and a large sunken seating area in front of an impressive home cinema. Seven Amina AIW5X invisible loudspeakers were selected to create the 7.1 surround system with the centre channel speakers positioned into the wall which is used to project films onto, ensuring the sound comes right from where it should with no visual impact. This approach ensured not only flawless sound delivery but also allowed the intricate, seamless design in the basement to remain intact and uninterrupted. These invisible loudspeakers work in a way analogous to acoustical musical instruments, such as a violin or piano, producing sounds through a multitude of tiny vibrations rather than through the pistonic action of conventional loudspeakers. This Distributed Mode Technology (DML) enable the speakers to be optimized for installation in a wall or ceiling and then covered be a 2mm final skim of plaster or similar and thus, once installed, there is no visible sign of where they are installed. The result in this inspirational family home was a system that covered every demand the family has, whether for a relaxing evening listening to their favorite music or a big film night with friends.

The stunning result had delighted Ian who commented “The sound is very impressive; the home cinema experience is fantastic with a surprising amount of output and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Amina invisible loudspeakers to my clients.”

Amina Technologies Ltd, Cirrus House, Glebe Road, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE29 7DL, Englandt: +44 (0)1480 354 390 f: +44 (0)1480 356 564 e: [email protected] w: www.amina.co.uk

Registered Office: Cirrus House, Cirrus House, Glebe Road, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE29 7DL, UKRegistered in England: 3656822 VAT Registration No: 728 2595 09 Amina is a registered trademark of Amina Technologies Ltd

http://www.amina.co.uk/

http://www.amina.co.uk/support/aiwx_series/

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs


Editors Information:

Amina Technologies Ltd is the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of truly invisible loudspeaker solutions. Dedicating itself for over 12 years to developing vibrating soundboard audio technology, our products are specified by top designers and architects worldwide for use in prestigious family homes, amazing apartments and state palaces through to the very best hotels and spa complexes.

Amina loudspeakers are normally installed below a final skim coat of finishing plaster, drywall compound or mud, but they can also be successfully installed using lime plaster, wood panelling and other surface materials. Walls and ceilings are then painted or wallpapered to taste.

We advise the use of a professional to install our product. A trained Audio installer knows just what to look out for in installing and integrating Amina product with existing electronics or a new entertainment system.




To understand what the professional will do when installing Amina product in to a wall or ceiling it might be helpful to visit our home page www.amina.co.uk and click the play button to see our video installation overview.

Contact Details Babs Moore Director, [email protected], 01480 354390.

For more information about Stand Tall for Giraffes, visit www.colchester-zoo.com/standtall.

For more information about Clarke Infinity contact Simon Clarke http://www.clarkeinfinity.com/




http://www.clarkeinfinity.com/


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In Ceiling and Wall Speakers: Hidden House- Hogarth Architects