A full refurbishment, reconfiguration and addition, including the excavation of basements, puncturing of the spine and party wall, removal of staircases, double rear addition and a comprehensive re-landscaping exercise created an extraordinary and characterful space. Utterly bespoke in nature, the house reflects our discerning and interesting clients.

Having considered a full gut of all floors and walls with an external wall retention scheme we settled on a significant reconfiguration that involved puncturing the party wall in several places at each of the 4 floors. This actually created something far more characterful with the constant evidence of the two buildings conjoining. Despite the generous floor plate of each house an open plan ground floor kitchen was always going to be compromised unless we created more lateral space beyond that of puncturing the spine wall. In removing the main stair to one building we created this extra meter which changed the circulation and made space for an efficient kitchen layout, using a wrap-around-island-kitchen table solution.

Further internal windows made subtle connections and offered enticing views whilst keeping the original fabric in place. Another staircase from 1st to 2nd floor was removed and another flipped so one could make bridge connections between the two houses whilst expressing the triple height space created by their removal. Two substantial roof lights threw light down into both cores and the spine punctures encouraged cross light to filter darker areas.

The ground floor palette was tied down by the limed Douglas Fir and pale polished plaster walls that continued throughout the core of the house. This peaceful feeling presented opportunities for adjoining rooms to introduce stronger colour and different textures. All joinery was highly bespoke and RVN provided a full interior decorative service, sourcing special items of furniture and light fittings. Further to that Ali Robinson was commissioned to design a number of bespoke items of furniture, including two vitrines, an extendable table and a hallway console as well the bronze pivot door and glazing.