Full house refurbishment and ground floor rear extension within a conservation area, to bring this semi-commercial property back into domestic use for the corporate rental market.
Part of the property had been used as an office for the developer / builder client and the second floor converted loft had been left unused for some years with no access. The brief was to design a four bedroom townhouse with open plan kitchen and dining space connected to a new garden. Each bedroom was to have en-suite accommodation or direct access to the family bathroom, and the top floor was to be brought back into use as a master suite within a roof space that included four dormers. At ground level the traditional single storey Victorian outrigger was to be replaced with an open plan kitchen and dining space, better connected to the new rear garden.
The property is orientated west-east, so the best source of natural light is along the south facing elevation of the proposed extension. In order to emphasise the connection between internal and external living space, a new London stock brickwork garden wall, which replaced a dilapidated fence, became the focal element of the project. The 2m high garden wall continues uninterrupted into the kitchen where it is capped by clerestory glazing and a zinc roof. The position of the clerestory window allows daylight and low-level sunlight to illuminate the dining area toward the centre of the house. A polished concrete floor also runs inside to out to increase the sense of connectivity and space. Our approach to the reconfiguration and refurbishment of the existing house was light-touch, with no additional steelwork required. We worked with the existing layout of spaces and made few but significant alterations to create two en-suite double bedrooms, one double bedroom directly facing the family bathroom, and a fourth master bedroom on the second floor using two of the four dormers for walk in dressing and shower rooms.
