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Project Details:

Location: London, United Kingdom

Architect: Archmongers / @archmongers

Footprint: 2,200 square feet

Structural Engineer: Foster Structures LTD

Landscape Design: Miria Harris

Carpenter: Tepassé

Photographer: Jim Stephenson / @clickclickjim

From the Architect: “Archmongers has completed a modern update of a Victorian house in a conservation area in Dalston, Hackney, for a creative couple working in the fields of graphic design and illustration. The project has transformed the house from a poorly insulated, single-glazed, gas-heated property with an irrational compartmentalized plan into a thermally efficient, all-electric, hi-tech, contemporary home with abundant daylight. A sunny yellow frieze on the new rear extension features a pattern with stylized rays overlooking the re-landscaped garden and new garden annex housing a music room.

“The rear elevation is defined by a two-story yellow brick column with frameless windows, accommodating an additional single room on the ground and first floors and a lateral extension on the lower ground floor. The lower ground extension introduces generous sliding glazed doors that open onto the garden and is characterized by its ornamentation: decorative concrete tiles cut with a pattern which takes inspiration from the Victorian plasterwork on the street elevation. The bespoke pattern was designed by the client, Leona Clarke, working closely with Archmongers to fabricate and install it. The tiles were designed to have interlocking and overlapping shapes at different depths. Over time, the design will become more visible as the raised areas darken.

“Inside, the house has been remodeled as a background to the clients’ collection of art and furniture. The solid steel columns and beams defining the threshold to the extension are revealed, combined with the warmth and tactility of raw materials. The new layout relocates the kitchen to the upper ground floor, where it faces onto the front garden and receives even north light. This reunites the kitchen with the dining room, creating a progressively more private domain towards the back of the house, facing the garden.

“The extension now holds a cozy snug on the upper ground floor, and on the lower floor is a seating area in the living room which is dedicated to listening to music. This area is lit from above and furnished with a bespoke Douglas fir DJ cabinet with wall-mounted speakers, and the entire house is wired to stream music into every room from this listening space.

“A new stair centers these spaces, crafted from Douglas fir and ply—softwoods specified over carbon-heavy slow growing timbers—and accented with black rubber treads. This joinery—handcrafted by furniture designer/maker, Charles Tepasse—is a central design device repeated throughout, and an exercise in exploring the range of a single material. It reappear in the door frames, the deep timber window sills, as a fire door in the first-floor lobby, as a bed frame in the principal bedroom, and as a dividing wall to form a dressing room.

"The house is future proofed: kitted out with thermal insulation and underfloor waterproof membranes to reduce moisture levels, it is now powered by a heat pump, which is located in the front garden and cleverly concealed by a decorative Cor-Ten steel screen designed by Leona and fabricated by Bikebox Works.

“A new 129-square-foot garden studio provides an annexed space separate from the house for the client to enjoy their extensive vinyl collection. It features a wildflower green roof and rainwater collection and is accessed via the south-facing garden, which features a stepped landscape with verdant planting including evergreen climbers, designed by garden designer Miria Harris. A pergola provides shading to the rear façade and patio.”