Extension and alterations to a private house, Islington, London.
Completed 2010

The main aim of the project was to create a sense of unity between the back garden and the house, allowing nature to play a significant part in the daily activities of the family.

The site of the project is a Victorian house located in a conservation area. Originally, the presence of the back garden in the house was minimal. View of the garden was limited, and the sole access to it was through a utility room located between the basement and the ground floors (see photos).

The back garden was excavated and the basement floor extended into it, to accommodate a new lounge. Particular aspects of the design aim to achieve a sense of merging of the garden and the inner space:

The stone floor of the garden extends into the lounge, and forms its low wall (see sketch). It creates the effect of a large stone box that slightly enters the house. This ‘box’ is identical in shape and size to the one forming the higher level of the garden.

The furniture in the lounge was also designed as an extension of the garden: the wooden bar table continues the garden’s floor level, and the horizontal storage unit forms an additional level between the garden and the basement floor (see sketch).

Timber shading for the ceiling of the lounge brings in natural light moderately, creating a sense of gradual transition from the light of the garden through to the inner space. It also provides privacy at night.

The climber plants on the walls of the garden will, when grown, surround the extension (see sketch).  

As a result of these actions, the lounge becomes an intermediate space , combining qualities of indoors and outdoors.

Originally, the basement floor consisted solely of a kitchen and a dining room. One of our aims was to convert this floor into a multi-use area. The new lounge was designed as a space in which the family can have guests, work, watch films, eat, and where the children can play. A new bathroom and a utility area were added to this floor, as well as a new separate entrance from street level (floor plan and section). 

As part of the project we also changed the layout of the upper floors, adding a terrace facing the back-garden, a study, an extra bedroom, and an en-suit bathroom to one of the existing bedrooms.

Work included the design of custom-made carpentry units, landscape design and project management. Click here for detailed information on the furniture and kitchen.

Client: private
General contractor: Clean Living e: building@cleanliving.co.uk
Carpentry at the extension: Folde e: info@folde.co.uk
Structural engineer: HPS, e: david@hpsstructural.fsnet.co.uk
Garden: Joan Scanlon, e: joan@towngardens.co.uk
Design: Tamir Addadi, Raphael Cohen