‘Lost House’ is covered extensively in a book entitled David Adjaye Houses (Thames & Hudson; ed. Peter Allison). The book describes how the building makes use of its site: “The east and west fronts of the Alaska building were at one time connected by a drive-through delivery yard with a solid platform along one edge, against which vehicles parked. For protection from the weather, the parking strip and platform were recessed into the section of the Alaska building above. In Lost House, the parking strip is occupied by two bedrooms and a sunken cinema, while the platform supports the concrete basin of a lap pool. The living space occupies the rest of the yard.”

We are then given an insight into the innovative configuration of spaces: “Belying its position at the bottom of a light well, Lost House is arranged as an expansive single-storey dwelling with a variety of internal and external views. The positions of the three parallel spaces described by the section of the delivery yard are both reinforced and broken down by the detailed organisation of the house; the walls marking the edge of each zone include a range of openings that make a series of transverse connections. To bring light into the deep section, the roof is punctuated by three courtyards and several rooflights, and the wall between the living space and the bedrooms includes a number of slit windows, which filter natural light in one direction and artificial light in the other.”

David Adjaye is one of the most renowned and critically acclaimed architects currently at work in Britain. He is perhaps best-known for his domestic commissions, having designed houses for the likes of artists Chris Ofili and Jake Chapman, photographer Juergen Teller, and actor Ewan McGregor.  In recent times his work has attracted more worlwide attention, leading to commissions to design the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver. He is also the architect behind the striking Idea Store in Whitechapel, east London.