Architect Peter Morris has completed a striking architectural intervention in Gospel Oak, North London, bringing a delightfully unexpected shade of pink to a neighborhood traditionally dominated by austere grey brick buildings. Named The Cloud House, the project comprises two adjoining three-story homes unified by an arresting facade characterized by enormous arches, scalloped rooflines, and vibrant turquoise-framed windows. Hovering somewhere between a Gothic church and a sun-drenched Miami beachfront hotel, the building introduces an unapologetically playful and imaginative new silhouette to the urban streetscape, challenging conventional expectations of residential architecture in the British capital.
The project’s unconventional architectural references are surprisingly rooted in its immediate local context. Directly opposite the site stands the Grade I-listed St Martin’s Church, whose elaborate historical arches Morris carefully studied, enlarged, and simplified to form the defining structural and visual motif of his own building. Furthermore, nearby St Martin’s Hall houses a French school behind a medieval castle-like stone facade, creating a local micro-climate of eclectic and eccentric architecture. For Morris, these unusual neighbors provided a deeply fitting setting for a residential project that felt comfortable taking a few creative liberties of its own, refusing to blend anonymously into the background of standard London housing stock.
Miami Art Deco Meets London’s Gothic Architecture
While the building’s sweeping arches nod respectfully to local ecclesiastical history, its vibrant color palette was born from an entirely different hemisphere. Architect Peter Morris and his wife, television producer Emily Kennedy, drew their primary visual inspiration from a honeymoon in Miami, where the iconic pastel-hued Art Deco buildings left a lasting and profound impression upon them. A smooth pale pink render now wraps the building’s robust exterior, while meticulous duck-egg blue metalwork outlines the tall, dramatic windows and secure perimeter gates. The oversized arches repeat rhythmically across the building elevations at varying heights, giving the three-story structure its signature cloud-like profile when viewed from the street.
Despite its fantastical and sculptural appearance, the construction methodology behind The Cloud House relies on surprisingly conventional and efficient building techniques. A durable structural steel and blockwork framework supports the highly decorative, oversized arches, which were constructed using dense, recyclable polystyrene supplied by specialist manufacturer Build-Lite. These lightweight components were precisely shaped into exaggerated, flowing curves before being finished with a durable, waterproof coating and a textured pink render. Morris maintained a hands-on approach throughout the entire construction phase, personally positioning many of the sculptural elements on-site to ensure the absolute precision of the facade’s complex geometry.
Striped Ceilings and Turquoise Floors Fill the Interiors
Stepping inside reveals that the exterior’s vibrant aesthetic is merely a prelude to an equally imaginative interior world. The more colorful of the two residences belongs to Morris, Kennedy, and their family. Spanning 133 square meters of thoughtfully designed space, the home opens directly into a flowing shared living and kitchen area. This central hub features pale turquoise epoxy flooring that reflects natural light, striking pink-and-white marquee stripes sweeping across the ceilings, and a rich emerald green kitchen. Custom green-and-white striped cabinetry, fabricated by Plykea, surrounds a generous three-meter-long pale pink kitchen island.
This bold appetite for saturated color continues seamlessly into the home’s bathrooms and ancillary spaces, where painted interior arches and rounded doorways echo the exterior’s geometric motifs and soften the transition between rooms. The private bedrooms occupy the two upper floors of the family dwelling, while a functional home office is positioned toward the front of the ground level to engage with the street life outside.
Above, a four-meter-long turquoise skylight cuts through the roof architecture, opening onto a private roof terrace completely enclosed by playful pink scalloped walls. Among the rooftop furnishings sits an unexpected luxury: an outdoor bathtub offering an elevated place to relax while looking out across the eclectic rooftops of Gospel Oak.
Next door, the larger 165-square-meter residence follows an inverted spatial arrangement. This neighboring home places its private bedrooms on the lower levels, shifting the primary living quarters up to the top floor, where residents can enjoy dramatic barrel-vaulted ceilings and direct access to an additional private terrace. To accommodate the future occupants, the interiors of this larger home have purposely been left as an open canvas, allowing the neighboring owners to customize and personalize the spaces to their own tastes.
A Deeply Personal Self-Build by Peter Morris
Bringing The Cloud House to fruition was a monumental labor of love that required nearly a decade of dedication from its creators. The journey included a rigorous five-year period navigating the complex planning permission process with the Camden Council. The two residences were developed collaboratively by their separate owners on a plot that previously accommodated an outdated Victorian property.
The completion of Morris and Kennedy’s family home marks the successful culmination of a long-running family project that reflects Morris’s lifelong professional and artistic fascination with postmodern architecture. By successfully wedding the ecclesiastical gravitas of North London with the sun-bleached pastel exuberance of Miami Art Deco, The Cloud House stands as a testament to the power of personal vision in contemporary residential design.
