Our clients approached us with a brief to extend their one-bedroom apartment, which occupied the ground floor of a two-storey mid-terrace property in North West London. The existing layout was cramped and lacked natural light. At the back of the property, where the living spaces were located, low ceilings and limited sight lines created a feeling of confinement and disconnection with the garden.

Thanks to the clients’ professional backgrounds as graphic and set designers, the design process was fully collaborative and informed by a shared set of principles. Alignment, proportion, scale, and design narrative were all important elements of this project.

By adding a side and rear extension, we were able to enlarge the living spaces, adding volume and height to the kitchen and dining areas with an up-and-over rooflight and improving access and outlook onto the garden from the living area.

Deep openings within the brick envelope provide places to sit while immersed in the building. The large-format glazing creates new sightlines and frames views out onto the garden, while the property’s orientation brings soft northern light deeper into the footprint and avoids any issues with overheating during the summer.

Light and shade are key in defining the different living spaces, transitioning from lighter to darker as you move further from the garden. Similarly, a hand-crafted palette of materials, including brass metalwork, polished plaster and bespoke fixtures, make each space within the property unique, whilst a base palette of polished concrete, exposed brickwork and walnut carpentry are used throughout to tie the whole design together.

Externally, the extensions were designed to appear as simple volumes, with contemporary large format slim frame glazing combined with traditional reclaimed brickwork. The polished concrete floor, extending from the interior, reinforces the seamless connection between inside and outside.