Kew House is a single family house, constructed using research-based design, fabrication and assembly techniques. The building envelope is a prefabricated structural weathering steel shell, built over a large basement that was used as an onsite drawing and fabrication workshop.

This is an experimental project that promotes housing innovation through design-led research exploring a kit-of-parts approach, structural façades, prefabrication and how digital fabrication opens up the possibilities for self-build. The project also asks how a building can be formed from fewer multifunctional components to reduce material waste, and simplify and accelerate construction. It investigates and demonstrates how factory manufacture of a sheet metal building fabric can enable new approaches to architectural design, prefabrication technology, transportation logistics and assembly; and how the use of a structural steel envelope can be reconciled with thermal-performance requirements.