Architect Peter Morris's marshmallow-pink Cloud House lands in Gospel Oak

Architect Peter Morris has completed Cloud House, a marshmallow-pink, arch-filled pair of homes in Gospel Oak, London, that he designed for himself and a colour-loving neighbour. The smaller of the two residences, his own, measures 133 square metres; the adjoining home spans 165 square metres.

The project appeared on the TV show Grand Designs in September and has since spread widely on social media. Morris says the reaction has been starkly binary. "I know that not everyone will love the Cloud House as much as we do – the reactions to it on social media have been either overwhelmingly positive or overwhelmingly negative, with nothing in between," he told Dezeen.

The house combines two offset residences: one for Morris and his partner, producer Emily Kennedy, and a second for a neighbour who shares their appetite for colour. According to the architect, the goal was to bring joy to passersby while giving his "love of postmodernism a chance to reveal itself fully".

"The key goal was to make a beautiful building which I hoped might create a little moment of joy for anyone walking past it on the street," Morris said. "It's easy to dismiss colour and pattern in architecture as frivolous, but there's something about this visual language that triggers an emotional response that's different from what you'll get with elegant modernism."

He added: "For me, that alone tells us we should push for more variety in the built environment and be open – as Camden Council have been with this project – to the idea of more fairytale flamboyance on our streets."

Where did the colours come from?

Miami, specifically the couple's honeymoon. The bold palette of pink and turquoise, plus the cloud-like forms, draw on the city's vast collection of art deco architecture.

"Emily and I honeymooned in Miami, where we loved the art deco curves of the buildings, and the pink and turquoise colours everywhere," Morris explained. "In a way this building is an architectural love letter to my wife, so it felt appropriate to have some of that honeymoon spirit in the mix."

The immediate context supplied the curves too. Cloud House occupies the site of a now-demolished Victorian home, adjacent to a distinctive church and school, where the couple have lived since 2016. The neighbouring Grade II-listed school and Grade I-listed St Martin's Church are, in Morris's words, "fabulously eccentric buildings".

"The school, which sits in St Martin's Hall, has a frontage that looks like a Medieval castle," he said. "And the church – described by the historian Nikolaus Pevsner as 'the craziest of London's Victorian churches' – has a knock-out interior, with a brightly coloured chancel ceiling and a nave with dramatic wooden arches."

How is it built, and what's inside?

The main structure is structural steel and blockwork. That frame is clad in decorative arches made of polystyrene, sprayed with a waterproof layer and a textured top coat to match the bright pink render on the elevations. Morris positioned the arches in place himself.

Morris's home sits on the right side of the plot and opens from a front-elevation entrance. It has a large open-plan ground floor with a lounge, kitchen and the architect's studio. Each of the two upper floors carries a bedroom and bathroom. A roof terrace crowns the home, complete with an outdoor bathtub.

The neighbour's 165-square-metre house works upside-down. A side entrance leads to a ground floor with a home office, kitchenette and a rear guest ensuite bedroom; the main bedroom, with dressing room and ensuite, plus a smaller ensuite bedroom, sits above. The social space – seating, dining and cooking – occupies the top floor, with an adjoining terrace and a second, larger terrace on the roof.

While Morris's interiors boldly match the vibrant exterior – turquoise epoxy floors, colour-drenched bathrooms and an emerald-green striped kitchen – the neighbour's interiors were left blank for them to customise.

What does the project change for Morris's practice? He's explicit about the commercial hope behind the spectacle: "My final goal, and hope, is that some of the people that do love it might one day be keen to commission me to create something colourful and joyful for them too."