One of our most exciting projects, this full house renovation and refurbishment challenges what is possible with modern inventions in an old property. Located in the heart of the Whitehall Park Conservation Area on the border of Highgate in North London, this project reinvents a very beautiful but unloved property into a series of new living and working spaces. A large part of the planning conundrum was the brief requirement to have a home workspace on the outrigger as well as a roof terrace. We devised a facade strategy that looked at clearly identifying the new and old elements, using an accoya timber gird and pergola system to articulate the facade.

Into the centre of the house a new lightweight steel stair is inserted, behind which a new 4m high bookcase is open to two sides of the house. With a north-south orientation, a key aspect of the brief was to bring daylight from the south facade deep into the northern side of the house. The open bookcase and stair help to free up the ground floor, allowing space and light to flood front to back. This device creates one continuous ground floor living space, which is divided up internally with screens and floor changes to allow a subtle dissemination of territory.

The façade and roof terrace design was borne out of an appraisal of the existing plan form and elevations. The façade is divided into three bays which are then transposed up the elevation into two bays at the terrace level. This helps to bring an order and clarity to the diagram, framing the old and the new parts of the house.

Internally the house enjoys very high ceilings in the principal spaces. The new kitchen and dining area has ceiling heights in excess of four metres which allows for a full height bookcase to be installed behind the dining table. A large rolling ladder comes to rest on the left hand side, allowing full access to every shelf and recess.

At ground floor level the existing set of walls and lower stair is removed, opening up the space for new stair that flies through the space.

At the top of the house sits a home office, which is housed within the accoya framed outrigger. The space enjoys sweeping views over London, and is paired with a modestly sized upper terrace which catches the westerning sun in the evening.