Period and house type

A mid-terraced building with a three storey rear return with a flat roof, built between 1879 and 1900 in the South Hampstead Conservation Area in London Borough of Camden.

The property had previously been extended with a single storey rear extension that had the same width as the rear return and with a much smaller structure for a toilet attached to it.

The house was dated, it was in pretty poor condition, and it required substantial refurbishment works to update its fabric, bring it back to life and to make it suitable for a modern family living.

How we responded to the client’s brief

On the ground floor we decided that the previously added extensions actually restricted how we could create open plan spaces that allowed generous circulation and a better connection (visual, physical) with the garden.

Typically later additions to terraced houses were done with no consideration to how the living spaces could or would connect to the rear garden.

Historically and for many years the focus in a house were the front reception rooms that emotionally and intellectually and in design terms were meant to turn their back to the rear of the house. This reflected the social values and culture of the time.

Times have changed and priorities for modern families have changed too.

Part of the transformation we wanted to carry out for this house was about finding a way to turn the ground floor layout back and re-orientate it to face the garden. To wrap around parts of the garden. To create a non-linear interface with the garden. And to bring the garden as close as possible to the living areas while also push living area deeper into the garden.

This is reflected in the L-shaped layout of the ground floor towards the rear. Towards the front of the ground floor we removed the existing walls that created this historic separation of the front rooms from the rest of the house.

In order to make sure that the living spaces are well defined, in proportion with the rest of the house and in proportion with eachother, we added steps down to the new kitchen + dining area towards the garden to mark the transition between the various functions across the ground floor.

We did not want to create an endless sequence of living areas of the same height and proportions as part of an open plan layout. It was important to create cosy corners and areas of activities for the whole family and the kids for different times of the day and to accommodate different social circumstances.

At roof level we had the opportunity to create more bedroom space however the homeowners decided on a “less is more” approach and they simply focused on what they needed from the house rather than try to maximise the floor space for the sake of it.

This meant that the new dormer roof extension was used to bring additional light at roof level and it was designed as part of opening up the second floor ceiling to create a grand double height space over the master-bedroom area.

There is a staircase to the mezzanine level to be used as a study / home work area.

The master-bedroom was designed to create a unique spatial experience. It achieved this through combining the views, character and full light coming from 3no. late Victorian front windows with the very contemporary and functional sequence of spaces in this double height volume.