SITE
The property was originally built as a classic Victorian terraced shophouse, with retail to the ground floor, two residential stories above and a utilitarian storage cellar below ground.
Through shifts in the way people shop, many of these smaller retail streets became redundant and the entire building had been converted in to a single family home with shopfront had been unsympathetically bricked in.
CLIENT
The clients are expats who very definitely chose to make London their home. They are well travelled and brought with them a rich palette of influences most notably the love of tactile history. The house was to be a reflection of its history and their way of life with many design thoughts spared for their pets.
CONCEPT
With little left to mark the early purpose of the property other than the original pilasters and shop sign panel, we set out to unearth the character elements that remained and bring them to the fore.
Present in just about every room of the original house is the running thread of the chimney breast. We stripped these down to the original brickwork to bring forth their elemental qualities and create a connecting theme for the whole house. Several rooms also retain their historic fireplace surrounds.
Double height spaces were introduced both as part of the loft conversion and rear extension. At loft level the chimney breasts that rise up through the house converge in a dramatic form. The loft contains a split level master bedroom, dressing room and ensuite.
The new double height glass extension serves to connect the living room with the kitchen and dining area across basement and ground floor levels. Board-marked concrete became the new layer for the extension, expressive of both its structure and materiality. A tall window adjoins the new void offering views out to the garden and enabling light to reach the lower ground living room.
We continued our concept of expressing the materiality through the use of raw unpainted plaster throughout the property.
The old shop frontage was reinstated in painted timber with its composition interpreted for residential use. With the kitchen set within the old shopfront the main living area is defined by a contrast between the now closed and private street front to a new open expansive glass rear facade.
CHALLENGE
Our client commented that the house resembles a hospital gown; closed to the front but open at the back. A considerable amount of structural intervention was required to achieve the desired openness from excavation to a cranked steel frame. In places original features like the staircase were suspended from the new structure.
Photographer: Ollie Hammick
Contractor: Stella Rossa Design & Build
Structural engineer: Structures Lab
Landscape Designer: Botanica Garden Designs
Concrete: White+Reid