A major refurbishment and extension project for a property in Forest Gate, Ridley Road seeks to open up this Victorian terraced house both internally and externally into it’s underused garden. The principal space to be considered was the new kitchen. The plan form of this new area was very irregular in shape, and therefore needed reconceiving. A new rectangular space was carved out which terminates at the garden end with two big glazed screens. The irregular spaces between this and the party walls are carefully set in with a combination of brick, bench seating and kitchen cupboards. Overhead, the roof is split neatly into four quarters. Two lift up to capture daylight, and two are flat to allow the services to distribute. The result is a geometrically balanced space with clear divisions and a visual harmony.
Further up the house, the rather tight floor plans are maximised to their full potential thus creating what was once a two bed house into a three bedroom house with large dining and kitchen spaces and two bathrooms. The exterior is clad in a dark extruded boarding, with a huge 95% recycled content. The smart black surface provides a legible division between the new and old volumes of the house. The dark surface compliments the London stock brickwork perfectly. The upstairs extensions provide ample extra space for a family, converting what was a two bed house into a four bed house with two bathrooms.
The ground floor of the house is awkwardly shaped in plan, with some difficult relationships to the boundary properties. The new kitchen layout seeks to redress these peculiarities and create a balanced open plan space. A series of new rooflights bring daylight flooding into the new spaces. The refurbishment makes use of a natural palette of raw materials, with polished concrete flooring, English garden wall brickwork and white american ash wood finishes.
