It was both time to leap ship or to reinvent their north London townhouse. Right after just about 40 years of living under the identical leaky roof, Russell Vandyk and Alan Martin Working day, both equally retired, daringly selected the latter. The couple employed Studio Ben Allen to incorporate a two-story extension on to the back again of their terraced Victorian. The question came with a bonus each and every structure crew longs for: they ended up inspired, claims Allen, to “use the venture as a testbed for strategies.”
In response, the architects, led by Allen and Omar Ghazal, took the chance to “push the boundaries of off-internet site fabrication, some thing we felt was lacking in tiny-scale residential projects.” Precisely, they applied prefabricated pigmented concrete on each the exterior and interior, as structural features that are also ornamental many thanks to Studio Allen’s daring use of coloration and curves. The addition now houses a double-top new skylit kitchen area with a mezzanine that connects to the current primary stair and potential customers to a quite memorable new bathtub. And there’s much more: Vandyk and Working day basically received an solely new home that even now retains highlights of the original—and has attained a whole lot of appreciation from the United kingdom design group. Dubbed The Property Recast, the transform was named “best new residence improvement project” of 2021 in the NLA’s once-a-year “Don’t Shift, Make improvements to!” contest. Be a part of us for a tour.
Photography by French + Tye, courtesy of Studio Ben Allen.
“There made use of to be a little galley kitchen area with only a single window and a dining desk squidged up against it, and the garden was just a scrappy little bit of land,” Vandyk told The Modern day Residence. “It’s not as if we have been indifferent or sloppy,” included Day. “The household just wasn’t definitely at the middle of our universe. When we had been young, we had diverse priorities. A great deal of our daily life was outdoor. Now, it’s about home comforts.”
Of late, there’s been a whole lot of issue in the style and design globe about the superior-carbon cost of developing concrete. Eco-friendlier versions—aka “green concrete”—are now surfacing, but Allen suggests that this task sadly predated the present dialogue.
Higher than: Yet another archway connects the eating room to the entrance corridor. The doorway in the qualifications prospects to the living area. Really do not Go, Increase! decide Tom Foxall commented on the task: “It is not just an extension it is a route via the making and spatially incredibly fascinating. It works unbelievably very well architecturally,”
The layout was impressed by architect Omar Ghazal’s Jordanian heritage, and by Center Japanese references in Victorian architecture, these types of as at Leighton House, the Holland Park home of painter Sir Frederic Leighton.
“Alan’s argument was, if we limit them, we’re not likely to finish up with anything quite attention-grabbing,” Vandyk commented to The Present day House. Additional Day: “There was a quite shut collaboration in the consultations, but we never ever challenged anything…We’re so content that we did not get started tutting and expressing no…We have the experience of rootedness simply because we’ve been right here given that 1980, and however one thing so imaginative has been finished.” For additional, look at the NLA’s Never Go, Make improvements to! video on the job.
Three more impressed townhouse makeovers:
